Monday proved quite positive for the Miami Heat (2-1), who continued to celebrate the best player in franchise history and moved to over .500 with their 106-98 win over the visiting Detroit Pistons (0-4).

Before we fully recap the latter, let’s pause for a moment for the bronze elephant in the room: the recently unveiled statue of Hall of Famer Dwyane Wade. The 2006 NBA Finals MVP, who was showered with MVP chants during a halftime ceremony honoring his statue and the Miami street intersection dedicated in his name, became only the 15th player in NBA history to have a statue outside a NBA arena. He joins Michael Jordan (Chicago Bulls), Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (Los Angeles Lakers), Kobe Bryant (Lakers), Magic Johnson (Lakers), Shaquille O’Neal (Lakers), Wilt Chamberlain (Philadelphia 76ers), Dominique Wilkins (Atlanta Hawks) and Dirk Nowitzki (Dallas Mavericks).

Around the team

Wade is aware of the jokes, but not the least bit interested in dimming his light. A day after the Heat legend was honored with his statue in front of the Kaseya Center, the three-time NBA champion stayed in the moment and reflected on his gratitude for the bigger picture. Not all publicity is good publicity, but it’s hard to credibly dislike someone who is celebrated with a statue, because… well, those are very rare?

“I don’t know many people with a statue,” he said before Monday’s game. “Will you? Is anyone here? Do you know anything about the statue process? It’s an incredible process to be a part of. It’s a complicated process. When I sat down with the Miami Heat, we wanted to capturing that moment that represented the organization, represented myself, and represented the city. I feel like we captured that moment in an artistic form – in an artistic way. If I wanted it to look like me, I would just go outside the arena stand and you would all take pictures.’

And to be fair to Wade, he was fine with keeping up with social media comments because it’s hard to pass up a good laugh. Beyond the revelation itself, the 42-year-old remained grateful for the way his basketball career is immortalized. Jokes are timely, but images are literally forever (unless one melts somehow, of course).

“I appreciate everyone’s response because I’m in on the joke, guys,” Wade said. “For example, I laugh all the time. I’m cool. I saw some memes today that made me think, “Okay, I have a little Laurence Fishburne jawline.” I mean, my jawline is covered in this beard – y’all can’t see it. I don’t have a beard yet, so you could see my jawline a little better.”

Dwyane Wade’s statue looks more like Laurence Fishburne pic.twitter.com/CHOH4F1ktQ

— Joel Rush (@JoelRushNBA) October 27, 2024

While Wade balanced perspective and laughter, he also wanted to convey his gratitude for the work of sculptors Omri Amrany and Oscar León of Rotblatt Amrany Studio. Amrany is also credited with sculpting statues for Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant.

“The Fine Arts Studios family has done an amazing job,” said Wade. “And I hate that for them because they’re in a different world, you know, when it comes to the work that they do and what they create. And every time they create something, someone has to come out and say something about their creation, who can’t do what they do. And so I know how they feel, because people talked about me a lot, but they couldn’t do what I do. So you know, you just learn to laugh, watch it, learn from it and move on. So we’re doing well.”

On Sunday, many fans took the opportunity to point out how off-base the new Dwyane Wade statue was.

But for sculptor Omri Amrany, who helped create the Wade statue, the criticisms do not bite. https://t.co/U4pOaWmWQA pic.twitter.com/VL27LVIAKA

— Frontoffice Sport (@FOS) October 28, 2024

Game result: Heat 106, pistons 98

• Heat top performers: Jimmy Butler (team-high 23 points, four rebounds, seven assists, four steals, zero turnovers), Terry Rozier (20 points, 5-12 3-pt FG, five rebounds, three assists, one steal), Bam Adebayo (12 points, 10 rebounds, four assists, three steals, three blocks)

• Pistons top performers: Cade Cunningham (game-high 24 points, eight rebounds, six assists, two steals), Jaden Ivey (18 points, 5-9 3-pt FG, four rebounds, one assist, two steals), Tim Hardaway Jr. (20 points, 3-6 3-pt FG, one assist average 10.7 points in first three games)

• Most important stretch in the game: Can an entire quarter be classified as a stretch? Let’s look at Monday’s final frame as Miami’s key to victory. During the fourth quarter, Miami committed one turnover, while forcing Cunningham into three turnovers and 2-of-8 shooting. On offense, seven Heat players scored in the fourth quarter, while the Pistons shot just 27.3 percent (6 of 22) to close the game.

What the heat says

• Jimmy Butler (from the team that seeks balance in attack): “I’m not going to walk away from my game because of the way people want our organization to play. I have to go on the attack. I’ve got to find my guys, guard the defensive side of the ball, and it’s going to look the way it looked tonight.
• Jimmy Butler (on team being aggressive because of steals): “I love it. Gambling… you just have to get four out of six. You can make two. Spo (coach Erik Spoelstra) will probably get angry, but if you get four out of six, he can’t be angry. I want all the gambling in the world. That’s what I do. I want everyone else to follow this example.”
• Terry Rozier (on thriving alongside Tyler Herro): “It’s just a lot of fun. We say it all the time: just pick your poison. We are two unselfish guys looking for our shot, for our teammate’s shot. Together with our anchors, Bam (Adebayo) and Jimmy, we try to bring everything together. And once we do that, it will be difficult.”
• Tyler Herro (on why Miami sealed the win): “Just stop. I think the most important thing right now is finding an identity at this point in the season; it’s still very early. We can hang our hat on the defensive side whether shots are fired or not. I still thought it was an efficient evening in terms of the shot diet and the profile we want. It’s about getting more threes and layups and getting shots falling.”

Next Heat game: Tuesday vs. New York Knicks, 7:30 PM ET

(Top photo: Carmen Mandato/Getty Images)