Dwyane Wade was one of the most exciting players to watch in the NBA and one of the best competitors in the league. He’s a three-time NBA Champion, Olympic Gold medalist and thirteen-time NBA All-Star,
The baller from Chicago joined the Miami Heat as the fifth pick of the 2003 NBA Draft. In his first season, Wade (who also flashed his athletic brilliance for Marquette University) achieved NBA All-Rookie Team status.
His impressive numbers with the Miami Heat made him a legend there and this Sunday the team unveiled an 8-foot bronze statue of Wade on the front steps of the Kaseya Center on Sunday – the first Heat statue to ever go up at its home arena in the franchise’s 37 seasons.
The presentation was full of fire, music and shocking moments that made Dwyane Wade showed total disbelief as he watched his face in his statue.
“This is nothing I thought I would experience, I didn’t played for this, I didn’t picked up the basketball for this. I picked up the basketball to change my family’s life. My dad put the basketball on my hand and I kept going because I wanted to change my family’s life.” said an emotional Wade during the unveiling.
“No one is just gonna believe in your dream unless they see you working toward that dream and that belief.” added the NBA legend.
In 2006, Wade led Miami to the city’s first-ever NBA Championship alongside another legend, Shaquille O’Neal. He also represented the United States in the 2004 Athens Summer Games and brought home the gold representing the USA in the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.
In 2012 and 2013, Wade won his second and third NBA Championships. He rejoined the Heat in February 2018 after playing with the Chicago Bulls and Cleveland Cavaliers. During the 2018-19 season, he became the third player in NBA history to record at least 20,000 points, 5,000 assists, 4,000 rebounds, 1,500 steals, 800 blocks, and 500 three-pointers.
In 2020, Miami retired Wade’s number three jersey and Northeast 7th Street at Biscayne Boulevard, outside the HEAT arena, was officially designated Dwyane Wade Boulevard.
The former basketball player was recently named to the NBA’s 75th Anniversary team as one of the 75 greatest players in NBA history.
