Charles Barkley Holds Nothing Back On Dwyane Wade Statue

The TNT analyst gave his thoughts on "Inside the NBA" Tuesday night.

Jun 12, 2024; Dallas, Texas, USA; NBA TV analyst Charles Barkley talks on set before game three of the 2024 NBA Finals between the Boston Celtics and the Dallas Mavericks at American Airlines Center. / Kevin Jairaj-Imagn Images

Hall of Famer and TNT analyst Charles Barkley, who is never at a loss for words, chimed in with his opinion on the Dwyane Wade statue Tuesday evening,

Barkley appeared on TNT's "Inside the NBA" with Ernie Johnson, Shaquille O'Neal and Kenny Smith. He discussed the honor for Wade, but said the statue looks nothing like his friend.

“It’s a great honor, but they’ve got to take that thing down.," Barkley said. “The statue was so bad,” Barkley said, “they had to put all his stats behind it so you’d know who it was.”

Johnson is usually not the funny one of the bunch. He found humor in the statue. He tossed in a few jokes in as well.

Johnson said, “One of the best reactions I saw was, look if you showed that to a thousand people and didn’t say who just got a statue, would you ever say, ‘Oh, yeah, that’s Dwyane Wade’?”

Johnson compared the statue to a Halloween costume. He made it sound like the statue could look like anyone.

“In one of the weirdest coincidences of all time, we’ve all dressed as Dwyane Wade on Halloween,” Johnson said. “We look as much like D as the statue does.”

On Monday, Wade even said he thought the attention he has received was rather humorous.

“I appreciate the comments that everybody has,” he said, “because I’m in on the joke, guys. I laugh all the time. I saw some memes today and I was like, ‘Yeah, it kind of got a little Laurence Fishburne with the lower jawline.’ “

Scott Salomon is a contributor to Miami Heat On SI. He can be reached at sas@southfloridamedianetwork.com.

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