The Miami Heat honored Dwyane Wade by unveiling a statue of the basketball legend outside Miami’s Kaseya Center, sealing his legacy with the team and making him the first Heat player to have a statue outside the arena.

The statue was unveiled in a ceremony on Sunday, about eight months after team president Pat Riley announced plans to cement Wade’s legacy with the Heat, the NBA said.

“This is crazy,” Wade said after the statue was unveiled. “I wanted to feel this. Life goes by so fast, and it’s very rare that we feel things because we’re always on to the next thing. … I wanted to feel this, man. I wanted to look at it.”

In comments following the reveal, Wade said he never expected this moment.

“I didn’t play for this,” he said at the ceremony. “I didn’t pick up the basketball for this. I picked up the basketball to change the lives of my family.”

He also said he is “one of the luckiest men in the world” because “people believe in me.”

The statue, designed by Omri Amrany and Oscar León of Timeless Creations, stands outside the front doors of the Kaseya Center.

Clearly stunned by the statue, Wade commented, “That’s crazy. I can’t believe that. Who is that guy?” just moments after he first saw it. After taking his place on the podium in front of the statue, he turned several times to admire the massive version of himself with a smile on his face.

But Wade’s fans on the internet were less than thrilled, saying the image bore little resemblance to him.

Making light of Wade’s “who is that guy?” commenting, one user on X said, “We’re all wondering the same thing.”

The image appears to show Wade in the middle of the celebration, with his mouth wide open, his eyes squeezed shut and his arms raised as he points down.

Another user joked that the image was actually of ‘Wayne Dade’, and a third compared it to actor Laurence Fishburne.

“The Miami Heat should have had a game where they showed this photo to a thousand fans — and anyone who suspects it’s Dwyane Wade gets to keep the statue,” Jeff Darlington, a reporter for ESPN, joked on X.

Asked at a news conference Sunday about the moment he saw the statue, Wade said he thought, “That’s beautiful.”

“I think it’s one of the best images ever created because of what it represents to us and to me,” he said.

Wade played 13 seasons with the Heat, from 2003 to 2016, before leaving for one season with the Chicago Bulls, followed by one season with the Cleveland Cavaliers, before returning to Miami for his final season in the NBA.

Next to the statue is a wall featuring Wade’s numerous career achievements, including being the Heat’s all-time leading scorer.

Wade is one of two players who have been on all three Miami Heat teams that have won NBA championships, according to the NBA. The other is Udonis Haslem.

His own team calls him “the greatest player in Miami Heat history,” and he is one of six former Heat players whose numbers the team has retired.

A member of the Basketball Hall of Fame, Wade was one of the Heat’s famed Big Three from 2010 to 2014, along with Wade, LeBron James and Chris Bosh. During their time together, the Heat played to two NBA Championships and four Eastern Championships. Conference Championships.

Wade was also part of the gold medal-winning team at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and won a bronze medal at the 2004 Athens Games.

The celebration continues Monday when Miami faces the Detroit Pistons in what the team is calling “a special Wade-themed game night,” featuring video tributes and a halftime speech from Wade.

Monday’s game also marks the 21st anniversary of Wade’s first game with the team, according to the NBA.

At Sunday’s unveiling, Wade was grateful. He thanked fans for following his career, adding after the statue’s unveiling: “I believe I’ve given you something to hold on to.”

“This is my house,” he concluded. “I’m gone.”