The Dwyane Wade Sculptor Explains Himself

The Heat unveiled an eight-foot bronze statue of three-time NBA champion Dwyane Wade on Sunday. Meant as an homage to Wade’s legacy, many fans took the opportunity to point out how off-base the sculpture was.

But for sculptor Omri Amrany, who co-created the Wade statue, the critiques don’t bite. 

“I want to be an artist that creates an in-your-face response and you cannot expect all of human society will have a positive reaction,” Amrany told Front Office Sports on Monday. “Some people will come with a goofy response or angry response. That’s not because of what the art is itself, but rather how it makes them feel. So, if this is my part of being a psychologist, fine.”

The main criticisms of the statue centered on the depiction of Wade’s face—saying the statue didn’t look like him—with some drawing comparisons to the notorious Cristiano Ronaldo bust unveiled in 2017. Amrany’s firm, Studio Rotblatt Amrany, had no hand in the Ronaldo sculpture that was later revised.

Amrany, who worked alongside artist Oscar Leon to create the Wade statue, however, said many incorrectly took what Wade said at the unveiling the wrong way. Wade visited Studio Rotblatt Amrany in Chicago multiple times and was closely involved with the artists in the creation of the statue. 

“He knew exactly what he wanted,” Amrany said. “He was very happy with the piece. He was joking when he turned around and said, ‘Who is this guy?’ It was like, ‘How did I get here where somebody made a sculpture for me?’ Some people took it like he didn’t recognize his own sculpture, which is completely the opposite.
It was just an expression. Sometimes people take the expression literally instead of trying to understand the depth of it.”

Wade called the statue “beautiful” when it was revealed at Sunday’s ceremony. 

“Personally I’m biased, I think it’s one of the best statues that’s been created because of what it represents for us and for me,” Wade told the Miami Herald. 

Photo: Miami HEAT/ David Alvarez

There’s a direct line between the Wade statue—the first of a Heat player at Miami’s Kaseya Center—and arguably Amrany’s most notable creation: the Michael Jordan statue known as “The Spirit” out front of the United Center that debuted in 1994. The Jordan statue was created by Amrany alongside his wife, Julie Rotblatt-Amrany, and the couple parlayed that success into a thriving business for Studio Rotblatt Amrany over the next 30 years. 

“I was looking at this one as continuing a tradition,” Omri Amrany said. “Dwyane was about 11 years old when his father took him to see the sculpture of Michael Jordan in Chicago after we unveiled it. Now, Dwyane is part of the next generation who is getting the tribute. I would like to see another 11-year-old kid with his father inspired by this statue and, 20 or 30 years from now, will have his own statue unveiled.”

The moment Wade picked for artists to illustrate was him making his “this is my house” gesture from a double-overtime victory over the Bulls late in the 2008–2009 regular season. Amrany said many of the sculptures his firm has worked on present challenges since they depict athletes in action, and Wade has only one foot on the ground in the statue. 

“That’s what makes things a little bit harder because, at the end of the day, you’re still looking at hundreds of hundreds of pounds of bronze that has to be standing safely for many years to come,” Amrany said.

While the cost of the Wade sculpture wasn’t disclosed, bronze statues can easily hit six figures. Studio Rotblatt Amrany currently employs about 15 artists with several projects in the works. 

The firm has created a dozen statues around Los Angeles’s Crypto.com Arena alone, including of Shaquille O’Neal, Magic Johnson, and the Kings’ 50th anniversary. A second Kobe Bryant statue was unveiled in August, the latest depicting the Lakers legend sitting courtside with his daughter Gigi. The two were among nine who died in a 2020 helicopter crash.