NBA great Charles Barkley. Kyle Terada-Imagn Images

Charles Barkley on Dwyane Wade statue: 'Take that thing down'

By Sai Mohan | Last updated Oct 30, 2024 6:07 AM ET

Charles Barkley is the latest analyst to poke fun at Dwyane Wade's controversial statue.

During Tuesday night's "NBA on TNT" broadcast, Barkley urged the Heat organization to demolish the statue and erect a new monument in honor of Wade.

"It's a great honor, but they gotta take that thing down," Barkley said.

Kenny Smith argued that the statue was "an animated" version of Wade's face akin to a caricature and that a hypothetical statue of Barkley wouldn't accurately depict his face either.

"No," Barkley vehemently responded. "[If] you made an ugly statue, that's what it would look like. That thing is awful... the statue was so bad, they had to put all his stats behind so you knew who it was."

"It's a great honor. But they gotta take that thing down."

Chuck & the crew give their thoughts on Dwyane Wade's statue pic.twitter.com/jIzSQjw0Me
— NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) October 29, 2024

Others such as The Ringer's Bill Simmons referred to the statue as "the worst statue of all time" for its failure to depict Wade accurately or allow onlookers to recognize the retired Hall of Famer.

Despite all the criticism, Wade and the sculptors of his statue have continued to express their satisfaction over how the monument turned out. Speaking to reporters on Monday, Wade invited detractors to "take some photos, send some memes" as he could care less about the criticism. The Heat legend added that he did not want the statue to accurately depict him and that it was meant to be an "artistic version" of his "this is my house" moment from March 9, 2009.

Meanwhile, Omri Amrany, the co-creator of the statue, said he was expecting "a goofy response or angry response" even before the statue was unveiled on Sunday night.

Sai Mohan

A veteran sportswriter based in Portugal, Sai covers the NBA for Yardbarker and a few local news outlets. He had the honor of covering sporting events across four different continents as a newspaper reporter. Some of his all-time favorite athletes include Mike Tyson, Larry Bird, Luís Figo, Ayrton Senna and Steffi Graf.

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