Hall of Famer Dwyane Wade was honored by the Miami Heat on Sunday with the unveiling of a statue outside the Kaseya Center. Such a gesture is perhaps the ultimate tribute a professional sports franchise or athletic program can pay to an iconic figure.

Wade was certainly impressed by the spectacle of having a sculpture made of him that generations of fans can now look at outside the Heat’s home arena and remember one of the team’s greatest players.

The statue immortalized the moment on March 9, 2009, when Wade hit a game-winning shot in double overtime against the Chicago Bulls, after which he stood on the scorer’s table and declared, “This is my house!”

But as impressive as the statue and the Heat’s presentation were, once the statue was unveiled, many noted that the bronze monument didn’t really resemble the NBA star.

The reaction to the statue and its lack of resemblance to the real figure being honored was similar to the reaction to the bronze bust of international football superstar Cristiano Ronaldo that was unveiled at the airport of his native Madeira, Portugal.

Outrage over a goofy, cartoonish rendition of the strikingly handsome Ronaldo was so loud and global that a new sculpture was commissioned, one that almost everyone agreed was a much closer representation of the actual subject.

A State Farm commercial featuring former NFL quarterback and current Prime Video studio analyst Ryan Fitzpatrick joked about a ridiculous arrest of his.

Everyone involved, including “Jake from State Farm” and Fitzpatrick’s colleague Charissa Thompson, insisted that the likeness of the image was complete. Still, Fitzpatrick was in disbelief and viewers of the ad certainly agreed how absurd the bust looked.

Here we are in real life, once again drawing a parallel to a comedy commercial that makes fun of exactly these kinds of moments.

Perhaps someone will ask Fitzpatrick — himself a former professional athlete from Miami who played for the Dolphins from 2019-2020 — what he thinks of the Wade statue. At the very least, he could repeat the question, “What did I do to deserve this?” line from the commercial and apply it to the basketball Hall of Famer.

Whatever the picture looks like, Wade certainly deserves such an honor. (Many would argue, however, that he deserves a sculpture that better resembles it.)

The guard played 15 of his 16 seasons with the Heat, averaging 22.7 points, 5.4 assists and 4.7 rebounds in 948 regular season games for Miami. He won three NBA championships, two as part of the “Big Three” with LeBron James and Chris Bosh, in addition to a gold medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

During his career, Wade was also a 13-time All-Star and led the league with a 30.2 points average in the 2008–09 season. The Heat retired his No. 3 jersey number in 2020 and he was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2023.

If Wade likes how the image looks, that should be the final word. And realistically, he won’t publicly criticize the similarity. But if the public outcry continues loudly and long enough, he might get the tribute fans think he deserves.