Dwyane Wade statue drama resurfaces following Derrick Rose interview
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Poor Dwyane Wade statue. Just when you thought society was finally done shaming the worst athlete “tribute” in the history of sport (or art for that matter), the still-raw wound was reopened yet again during Derrick Rose’s recent interview with Shams Charania.
In an exclusive sit-down with the ESPN insider following his offseason retirement, Derrick Rose openly discussed a number of subjects surrounding his career, including his thoughts on having the Chicago Bulls retire his No. 1 jersey.
Rose said he was all for the gesture, insisting “I would love that.”
“That would be my way of getting close to the top 75,” Rose added. “And I'm only saying that because it relates to the MVP thing, where it's only a handful or a small group that got that trophy back there.”
Indeed, when Derrick Rose’s jersey is retired, he’ll be only the fifth Chicago Bulls player to ever receive the honor — alongside the impressive company of Jerry Sloan (No. 4), Bob Love (No. 10), Michael Jordan (No. 23), and Scottie Pippen (No. 33).
But when the prospect of an honorary statue was brought up with Rose, he struck a decidedly different tone.
“The statue. The way people have been creating the statues; no,” Rose insisted.
“I do not want no statue,” he continued. “No statue. Jerry, no statue. Please, Michael. No statue.”
Assuming Rose is referring to Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf and team president Michael Reinsdorf, that’s a pretty clear “no thank you” to the powers-that-be right at the top of the organization.
It’s also some pretty clear shade-throwing at the recent statue debacle with Dwyane Wade in Miami.
Ever since that infamous day in Miami, on October 27, 2024, when the Heat unveiled a bronze statue outside the Kaseya Center, purporting to be of D-Wade but in no way resembling the NBA legend — the memes have been flowing, the trolls have been hating, and the Laurence Fishburne comparisons have been coming fast and furious.
Wade, for his part, handled the situation graciously, defending the artists and stating, “It don’t need to look like me. It’s the artistic version of a moment that happened.”
That slowed down the backlash to a degree, and the hoopla seemed to finally be dying down… until the subject of statues reared its ugly head again during the Derrick Rose interview.
Because the Dwyane Wade debacle is now clearly the first image that comes to mind whenever someone brings up the prospect of an athlete getting a statue. It’s part of our collective consciousness now, and society will just have to adapt.
Maybe someday, somehow, we can test the waters of the topic again, but with his definitive response, Derrick Rose made painfully clear in his Shams Charania ESPN interview that when it comes to statues, it’s still just… too soon.
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