MIAMI — It still hasn’t hit Dwyane Wade. The Miami Heat icon has had nine months to let the news sink in, but he’s still not sure what it’s going to feel like to see a statue of himself standing in front of the Heat’s home arena.

“I’ve been trying to think about it ever since I heard that I would have a statue and I don’t think any answer I come up with is going to reflect how I will feel,” Wade said to the Miami Herald. “I don’t even know if it’s going to hit me right away.”

Wade is going to find out soon enough, with the Heat set to unveil his bronze statue during a ceremony at Kaseya Center set to begin Sunday at 5 p.m. Wade’s statue, which will be located at the top of the steps leading into Kaseya Center on the venue’s West Plaza, will be the first Heat statue to go up at the arena.

Heat managing general partner Micky Arison, CEO Nick Arison, president Pat Riley, coach Erik Spoelstra and the current Heat roster are expected to be in attendance for Wade’s moment. Fans who were able to reserve tickets for the event when they were made available in late September will also be there.

“It’s something that I never thought or played for or thought I would have,” Wade said of getting a statue. “If you asked when I came in, I probably would have said Pat Riley would have the first statue if the Heat is going to have one. So for me to be the first, it continues to show me how much Pat and how much Micky and the Riley family and the Arison family revere me.

“I think a lot of people like to focus on some of the negatives that went down in our relationship. But our relationship was so long and there were so many positives in it.”

Wade, 42, is widely considered to be the greatest player in Heat history.

Drafted by Miami with the fifth overall pick in 2003, Wade is the Heat’s all-time leader in categories like points, games played, minutes played, assists and steals and is considered one of the top shooting guards in NBA history. Among his most impressive accomplishments: three championships with the Heat (2006, 2012, 2013), a Finals MVP award in 2006 and an NBA scoring title in the 2008-09 season.

Wade’s NBA playing career lasted 16 seasons and included 13 All-Star Game selections, spending the first 13 seasons of his career with the Heat before briefly leaving amid a contract dispute to spend the 2016-17 season with the Chicago Bulls and part of the 2017-18 season with the Cleveland Cavaliers. But Wade was traded back to the Heat midway through the 2017-18 season to end his career in Miami, entering retirement at the end of the 2018-19 season.

“2016 didn’t change anything about what I accomplished here and what I knew I meant to Miami,” Wade said when asked about that turbulent time in his relationship with the Heat. “As I always say, and everybody can identity with this, the Miami Heat is a family. But with family, there are times when you have people in your family when you go through things. You go through moments when you’re not talking to each other, you’re not communicating, you’re not agreeing. But you’re going to go through other moments, as well, and we’ve had so many moments. That was one that played out in front of everyone. But that one moment, for me, will never determine my relationship with anyone. I’m not built like that.”

If anything, Wade believes the lessons learned during that tough time strengthened his relationship with the Heat.

“I actually love the relationship that we have because we have a relationship that has been through good times and we have a relationship that have been through some bad times,” he said. “But we also show up and we smile and we laugh and we do all the things. That’s a full relationship to me, not just the good times.”

When the statue is unveiled Sunday, Wade won’t be surprised. He made clear that he has been “heavily involved” in the decision-making process for his statue.

“I don’t play those games. I definitely know,” Wade said with a laugh when asked if he knows what his statue looks like. “I wanted to be heavily involved because this is bigger than me, this represents more than just me. But also, I’m very vain. So I want to make sure it looks right.”

Wade, who became the first Heat draft pick enshrined into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame when he was inducted as part of the 2023 class, even made trips to Rotblatt Amrany Studio in the Chicago area to collaborate with Omri Amrany and Oscar León throughout the process.

Among the statues that Rotblatt Amrany Studio has already created are “Michael Jordan Spirit” in Chicago, the Kobe Bryant “Black Mamba” statue and the “Kobe and Gianna Bryant Memorial Statue” in Los Angeles.

“One of the emotional parts of being a part of the process is that next to my statue was Kobe Bryant’s statue being made in the same place,” said Wade, who was tight-lipped about what his own statue will look like. “So I’m there and I’m able to tell the artist, ‘Hey, I don’t like this. Hey, can you change this?’ And I’m watching my brother’s statue to the left and it’s not the same process that’s going down. So as we’re celebrating something and we’re a part of something, that made me appreciate this moment even more because nothing is guaranteed to us.”

Wade has been in Miami for most of the week, arriving a few days before the unveiling of his statue to be there for Riley’s moment. Riley was Wade’s head coach for three seasons with the Heat and the Heat’s president for the entirety of Wade’s Heat career.

The Heat celebrated the start Riley’s 30th season with the Heat by unveiling “Pat Riley Court at Kaseya Center” in a halftime ceremony during Wednesday’s season-opening loss to the Orlando Magic. Among the former Heat players who were in attendance to honor Riley on Wednesday were Wade, Udonis Haslem, Alonzo Mourning, Goran Dragic, Glen Rice, Jamal Mashburn, Mike Miller and Norris Cole.

“We all love Riles because of what he’s done for all of us, not just as basketball players but what he’s done for us as men — the way that he’s cared and talked to us,” Wade said. “A lot of people don’t do that in this thing. A lot of people, you’re in and you’re out. It’s transactional. Even though you may be traded, even though it may not go the way you want, it’s not really transactional like that with Riles and the Heat.

“So I think the older we are, the further we get away from it, we appreciate that. We appreciate him for being hard as [expletive] on us because it’s allowed some of us to walk away from the game and know how to go and attack this world the way we need to as former players. So we just all appreciate him and we’re thankful that we were able to be there to celebrate coach getting something that’s well deserved.”

Wade, who moved his life to the Los Angeles area in retirement, has also spent the week in Miami around the community.

On Thursday, Wade teamed up with Heat center Bam Adebayo to unveil a new and improved basketball court at Chapman Partnership in downtown Miami. The court was originally donated by Wade years ago, but Adebayo and his foundation recently revamped the court.

On Saturday, Wade is hosting the inaugural “When We Gather Food & Wine Festival” in Overtown. The event will be a celebration of food, wine and community showcasing some of Miami’s top chefs.

“I can’t even call it a second home,” Wade said of his trips back to Miami. “It’s home. It will always be home. I always feel it. There’s no feeling like Miami for me. I spent so much of my life here, I know so many crevices and corners of Miami. I know so many people here. So I love coming back. There’s no feeling like coming back here.”

After Sunday’s statue unveiling, the Heat will host “Dwyane Wade Statue Night” during Monday’s matchup against the Detroit Pistons at Kaseya Center on the 21-year anniversary of Wade’s NBA debut. Wade will address the crowd during a halftime presentation, with video tributes to his Hall of Fame career sprinkled throughout Monday’s game against the Pistons.

“This is going to be about everyone,” Wade said. “This is going to be about the whole city of Miami, so I cannot wait, and all of our fans worldwide to be able to see and experience this.”

But this weekend is really about Wade.

Wade is already one of six Heat players to have his jersey retired by the organization. One of the streets in front of Kaseya Center was renamed Dwyane Wade Boulevard in 2020, with the street signage reflecting that change finally installed this week. Now, one of the most iconic moments in Wade’s illustrious Heat career will be frozen in time in the form of a statue standing right in front of the Heat’s home arena.

“When Pat said I’m the face of the franchise forever,” Wade said, “this is the moment when he means it and he’s showing it by making sure there’s a statue that will be sitting outside for a very long time.”

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