After Criticism of Own Statue, Dwyane Wade Shares Verdict on Carmelo Anthony’s Latest ‘Sculpture’

“We grew over the years. I know people joke about the banana boat, but we’re more than a banana boat. This is a true friendship.” Carmelo Anthony once spoke about his bond with Dwyane Wade. Both began their career in the same year and would go on to play for 19 and 16 seasons, respectively. But the test of true friendship is if one can take shots at the other without offending them. Melo that a few months ago, and this time Wade got him for good.

A few days ago, the two stars appeared in AT&T’s recent commercial alongside Kiyan Anthony and Melo’s Syracuse coach, Jim Boeheim. In the commercial, the Knicks legend is unveiling his statue and praying hard it has no facial issues like Dwayne Wade. “Please be good. Please be good.” But the prayers went unanswered as the 10x All-Star nightmare turned true. Instead of the eight-foot statue of D-Wade, Melo’s one was very small.

The Flash quickly commented with a backhanded compliment: “It’s a Mini Melo…mini Melo.” The three-time NBA champion continued to clap in the commercial, standing beside his friend, and called it a masterpiece. If you think Dwyane Wade was done there, then you are wrong. On his Instagram story, he uploaded the post and added the caption “It’s A Masterpiece 👏🏿👏🏿.” Rubbing the salt on his best friend’s wounds. In a way, it’s a sweet revenge, because of Carmelo Anthony’s comment about the Heat legend’s statue.

Melo was present in the audience when D-Wade received the honor of a lifetime. But he too joined in on the jokes and memes bandwagon, trolling the statue’s facial expression. During the episode of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, he said, “I think he was caught up on the process. He loved the process of it and just forgot the outcome.” But he didn’t stop there. A few days later, Anthony added, “So, I get back to the hotel and I get the picture, [I was like], who is this? I thought somebody was making a joke. I was like, Nah, this is James Evans.”

So the commercial of AT&T was shot in such a way that the Flash gets his revenge back. But you want to know Melo’s true reaction to trolls and the Heat legend’s statue moment.

Despite the jokes, Dwyane Wade received real support from Carmelo Anthony

As soon as the statue was unveiled, the memes about it were rampant. Former players like Shaquille O’Neal, Charles Barkley, and even current star Draymond Green chimed in. Amidst all this, the 3x NBA Champion did not budge and was happy with how his statue looked like. Melo even tried to confirm it at the after-party.

The Knicks legend said, “We’re in there. I’m just like, D, how you feeling about that? He’s like, ‘I got one.’ I said, you know what? that’s your answer. F–k everybody else. You got one. You’re the only one down there.” So, Melo reminded Dwyane Wade that he was the first Heat player in their franchise to receive that honor.

That is why, even today, D-Wade is not changing his stance on the eight-foot sculptor. If things hadn’t panned out in that manner, then maybe there would have been no such AT&T commercial.