With the Miami Heat breaking out of their slump with the 129-117 win over the Atlanta Hawks on Wednesday to get the team's first win of the season, something else happened to the team that is commanding attention off the court. After a boatload of criticism since its unveiling in Oct. of 2024, the Heat have revamped Dwyane Wade's statue on Friday, leading to candid comments from the team legend.

As the intention was to capture the moment when Wade did his iconic “This is my house” celebration in March of 2009, the talk of the town around the statue was on his face, with many critiquing its likeness. There's no doubt that Wade and the team who created the statue heard the outside noise, as the former player admitted in a Substack post he “heard the jokes,” “saw the memes,” and “read the reactions.”

Having originally felt a connection to the statue, he realized that it “belongs to Miami,” and asked him a “pretty simple question.”

“So eventually, I had to ask myself a pretty simple question: If people don’t feel that connection when they look at the face, why wouldn’t we try to make it better?” Wade asked Friday. “So we listened and had honest conversations with everyone involved, and we all agreed to make adjustments to the head.”

“It may be my likeness, but it will always be our house.” – @DwyaneWade

A closer look at the enhancements to his statue. pic.twitter.com/VmcBYsEzDK

— Miami HEAT (@MiamiHEAT) October 30, 2026

Dwyane Wade on further changing his Heat statue, specifically the face

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Wade continued talking about the Heat statue, saying that this process was different than before since it focused on the face. He would emphasize that the point of redoing the face wasn't about “erasing the work that was already done or disrespecting the artists,” but “about being willing to listen.”

“It gave us a chance to make sure the face better connects with the person and the emotion the statue is meant to represent,” Wade wrote. “It’s about being willing to listen. It’s about recognizing when something carries meaning for more people than just yourself and being open enough to revisit it.”

The fan reaction has been more positive, praising the likeness, as it will be outside the Kaseya Center forever.