Chris Webber Jokingly Says Dwayne Wade’s Statue Looks Like Chris Rock 'When He Was Pookie Smoking Crack'

The statue was inspired by a moment in 2009 when Wade jumped on the scorer's table and screamed, "this is my house," after hitting a game-winning three-pointer.

October 30, 2024

Chris Webber and Dwyane Wade are wearing headsets, smiling, and engaged in conversation at a sports event.

(Photo by Joe Murphy/NBAE via Getty Images)

Chris Webber is the latest person to roast Dwayne Wade's new bronze statue, which the Miami Heat recently unveiled in front of the Kaseya Center.

On Tuesday, TMZ Sports caught up with Webber at LAX and asked his thoughts about the D Wade statue, which has gone viral thanks to the fact that it looks nothing like the three-time NBA champion. Webber echoed that sentiment when he joked that the statue looks like Chris Rock's "Pookie" character from the 1991 film New Jack City.

"First of all, D Wade is the third best two-guard of all time. That's [Michael] Jordan, and then there's Kobe [Bryant], then there's D Wade. That's a hell of a thing," Webber said. "He's a champion, and he's a winner, but man, I saw some pictures of it that kind of look like Chris Rock when he was Pookie smoking crack. It also looks like the lead singer from The Five Heartbeats when he was singing."

Webber added that he was going to head down to Miami and take a picture with the statue, and suggested that artists should hang out with their subjects and study their bodies instead of using a photograph.

"We gotta let this artist go around and go to dinner with D Wade, hang out and see the natural movements, and not just take it from a picture," Webber explained. "You know what I mean, 'cause you can get the nuances in somebody's movement, but D Wade and his mouth and all that wasn't like that. So they got to study the character a little bit more."

The statue was inspired by a moment in 2009 when Wade jumped on the scorer's table and screamed, "this is my house," after hitting a game-winning three-pointer to defeat the Chicago Bulls in double overtime. In a statement to ESPN, Wade said the statute doesn't need to look like him because it captures an iconic moment in his career.

"If I wanted it to look like me, I'd just stand outside the arena and y'all can take photos," Wade said, according to ESPN. "It don't need to look like me. It's the artistic version of a moment that happened that we're trying to cement."

He continued, "I care, but I don't. 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."