Carmelo Anthony and Dwyane Wade may be good friends, but that didn’t stop him from cracking a few jokes about the latter’s new monument.
In a recent appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Melo revealed his thoughts about Wade’s viral monument — first explaining that he was at the unveiling but didn’t get a chance to check it out then.
“I went to the ceremony but I didn’t see it because I was sitting on the side,” he explained before clarifying that it was so crowded, he couldn’t see the statue. “Somebody sent me the screenshot later.”
When talking about what he thought went wrong later, Melo said Wade “loved the process and forgot the outcome.”
Late last month, Wade became the first Miami Heat player in NBA history to be honored with a statue outside of the Kaseya Center. In his unveiling speech, Wade himself poked fun at the statue that, honestly, doesn’t look much like him.
“I didn’t prepare much because I wanted to feel this, man,” said Wade. “I wanted to look at it. Like, that’s crazy. I can’t believe that. Who is that guy?”
In a more serious tone, Wade explained what it felt like to see his statue come to life. “This is nothing that you can dream of. This is nothing I ever thought I would experience,” he explained. “I didn’t play for this. I didn’t pick up the basketball for this. I picked up the basketball to change my family’s life.”
Wade later addressed the reactions to the sculpture on social media — with many people agreeing with others that the sculpture looked like someone else entirely. “If I wanted it to look like me, I’d just stand outside the arena and y’all can take photos,” Wade said. “It don’t need to look like me. It’s the artistic version of a moment that happened that we’re trying to cement.”
Wade also encouraged people to keep sharing their opinions because they don’t impact him at all. “I care, but I don’t,” Wade said of the viral responses. “The social media world is about opinions. Everyone has an opinion. Everyone, use y’all opinions. Please talk more about us. Talk more about a statue, come on down to see it, take some photos, send some memes. We don’t care.”
