Heat unveil statue of Dwyane Wade outside the front of team's arena

MIAMI (AP) — Dwyane Wade is now the first Miami Heat player with a statue outside the team's arena.

The Heat unveiled the statue Sunday, about eight months after team president Pat Riley announced plans for the tribute. Wade is Miami's all-time leading scorer, and he and Udonis Haslem are the only players to have been on all three Heat teams that won NBA championships.

“This is crazy,” Wade said moments after the unveiling. “I wanted to feel this. Life goes by so fast and it's very rare that we get to feel things, because we're always off to the next thing. ... I wanted to feel this, man. I wanted to look at it.”

An in-game celebration will follow Monday when Miami plays host to Detroit on the 21st anniversary of Wade's debut game with the franchise.

Wade, a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame, is one of six former Heat players to have their number retired by the team — along with Haslem, Chris Bosh, Tim Hardaway, Shaquille O'Neal and Alonzo Mourning.

“As the greatest player ever in Miami Heat history, yes, it's his day, it's his family's day,” Riley said.

The statue is accompanied by a wall listing Wade's career accomplishments and has been placed outside the front doors of the team's arena. Wade is now a part-owner of the Utah Jazz in addition to having many other business interests.

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Former Miami Heat NBA basketball player Alonzo Mourning, cener, arrives at a statue unveiling ceremony for former teammate Dwyane Wade outside the Kaseya Center, Sunday, Oct. 27, 2024, in Miami, Fla. (AP Photo/Michael Laughlin)

Former Miami Heat NBA basketball player Dwyane Wade, center, arrives at his statue unveiling ceremony outside Kaseya Center, Sunday, Oct. 27, 2024, in Miami, Fla. (AP Photo/Michael Laughlin)

Former Miami Heat NBA basketball player Dwyane Wade, center, speaks during his statue unveiling ceremony outside the Kaseya Center, Sunday, Oct. 27, 2024, in Miami, Fla. (AP Photo/Michael Laughlin)

Former Miami Heat NBA basketball player Dwyane Wade, right, hugs Heat president Pat Reiley during a statue unveiling ceremony outside the Kaseya Center, Sunday, Oct. 27, 2024, in Miami, Fla. (AP Photo/Michael Laughlin)

Former Miami Heat NBA basketball player Udonis Haslem, second from left, speaks during a statue unveiling ceremony for former teammate Dwyane Wade outside the Kaseya Center, Sunday, Oct. 27, 2024, in Miami, Fla. (AP Photo/Michael Laughlin)

Former Miami Heat NBA basketball player Dwyane Wade, upper left, looks at a bronze statue of himself during a statue unveiling ceremony outside the Kaseya Center, Sunday, Oct. 27, 2024, in Miami, Fla. (AP Photo/Michael Laughlin)

Former Miami Heat NBA basketball player Dwyane Wade looks at a bronze statue in his image during its unveiling ceremony outside Kaseya Center, Sunday, Oct. 27, 2024, in Miami, Fla. (AP Photo/Michael Laughlin)

BRUSSELS (AP) — NATO on Monday confirmed that North Korean troops have been sent to help Russia in its almost three-year war against Ukraine and said some have already been deployed in Russia’s Kursk border region, where Russia has been struggling to push back a Ukrainian incursion.

“Today, I can confirm that North Korean troops have been sent to Russia, and that North Korean military units have been deployed to the Kursk region,” NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte told reporters.

Rutte said the move represents “a significant escalation” in North Korea’s involvement in the conflict and marks “a dangerous expansion of Russia’s war.”

Adding thousands of North Korean soldiers to Europe’s biggest conflict since World War II will pile more pressure on Ukraine’s weary and overstretched army. It will also stoke geopolitical tensions in the Korean Peninsula and the wider Indo-Pacific region, including Japan and Australia, Western officials say.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is keen to reshape global power dynamics. He sought to build a counterbalance to Western influence with a summit of BRICS countries, including the leaders of China and India, in Russia last week. He has sought direct help for the war from Iran, which has supplied drones, and North Korea, which has shipped large amounts of ammunition, according to Western governments.

Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov shrugged off Rutte’s comments and noted that Pyongyang and Moscow signed a joint security pact last June. He stopped short of confirming North Korean soldiers were in Russia.

Lavrov claimed that Western military instructors already have been covertly deployed to Ukraine to help its military use long-range weapons provided by Western partners.

“Western military personnel long have been working in Ukraine,” Lavrov said after a meeting with the Kuwaiti foreign minister in Moscow.

Ukraine, whose defenses are under severe Russian pressure in its eastern Donetsk region, could get more bleak news from next week’s U.S. presidential election. A Donald Trump victory could see key U.S. military help dwindle.

In Moscow, the Defense Ministry announced Monday that Russian troops have captured the Donetsk village of Tsukuryne — the latest settlement to succumb to the slow-moving Russian onslaught.

Rutte spoke in Brussels after a high-level South Korean delegation, including top intelligence and military officials as well as senior diplomats, briefed the alliance’s 32 national ambassadors at NATO headquarters.

Rutte said NATO is “actively consulting within the alliance, with Ukraine, and with our Indo-Pacific partners,” on developments. He said he was due to talk soon with South Korea’s president and Ukraine’s defense minister.

“We continue to monitor the situation closely,” he said. He did not take questions after the statement.

The South Koreans showed no evidence of North Korean troops in Kursk, according to European officials who were present for the 90-minute exchange and spoke to The Associated Press about the security briefing on condition of anonymity.

It’s unclear how or when NATO allies might respond to the North Korean involvement. They could, for example, lift restrictions that prevent Ukraine from using Western-supplied weapons for long-range strikes on Russian soil.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, citing intelligence reports, claimed last Friday that North Korean troops would be on the battlefield within days.

He previously said his government had information that some 10,000 troops from North Korea were being readied to join Russian forces fighting against his country.

Days before Zelenskyy spoke, American and South Korean officials said there was evidence North Korea had dispatched troops to Russia.

The U.S. said around 3,000 North Korean troops had been deployed to Russia for training.

Associated Press writer Barry Hatton in Lisbon, Portugal contributed to this report.

Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

FILE - NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, left, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, speak to journalists during a news conference in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Oct. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka, File)

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte delivers a statement, after a meeting with a high level South Korean delegation including top intelligence and military officials as well as senior diplomats briefed NATO diplomats, at NATO headquarters in Brussels on Monday, Oct. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte delivers a statement, after a meeting with a high level South Korean delegation including top intelligence and military officials as well as senior diplomats briefed NATO diplomats, at NATO headquarters in Brussels on Monday, Oct. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte delivers a statement, after a meeting with a high level South Korean delegation including top intelligence and military officials as well as senior diplomats briefed NATO diplomats, at NATO headquarters in Brussels on Monday, Oct. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte delivers a statement, after a meeting with a high level South Korean delegation including top intelligence and military officials as well as senior diplomats briefed NATO diplomats, at NATO headquarters in Brussels on Monday, Oct. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)

FILE - Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, and North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un smile during their meeting at the Pyongyang Sunan International Airport outside Pyongyang, North Korea, on June 19, 2024. (Gavriil Grigorov, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP, File)

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte delivers a statement, after a meeting with a high level South Korean delegation including top intelligence and military officials as well as senior diplomats briefed NATO diplomats, at NATO headquarters in Brussels on Monday, Oct. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)