Is it Dwyane Wade or Laurence Fishburne? Artist defends statue: ‘We had the same thing with Kobe No. 8’

Dwyane Wade loves his new statue.

“I was just like, ‘Dude, that’s beautiful,'” the Miami Heat legend told reporters Sunday after a 7-foot-3 bronze representation of his image was unveiled outside Kaseya Center in Miami.

“Personally biased, I think it’s one of the best statues that’s been created because of what it represents for us and for me.”

Not everyone agrees.

One of the most iconic moments of Wade’s 16-year career came on March 9, 2009, when he stole the ball and hit the game-winning three-point shot in the final seconds of double-overtime against his hometown Chicago Bulls in Miami. In the immediate aftermath, Wade jumped on the scorers’ table, pointed down at the floor around him and declared, “This is my house!“

Wade said it was his idea to immortalize that pose with the statue.

“What I feel when it comes to a statue, when it comes to this kind of moment, I feel that it has to be something that when the fans think of you, when they think of your career, when they think of your life … what’s the first thing that comes to mind?” Wade said.

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“And so if you’re a fan of myself, if you’re a fan of the Heat, I’ve had a lot of moments — I think there’s none bigger than that one. You know what I mean, like, ‘This is my house’ moment is the biggest moment of my individual career. And this was an individual moment for me, to pick that.”

The statue, however, doesn’t capture Wade’s likeness to the satisfaction of numerous social media users, who have commented that it looks more like Laurence Fishburne, Kelsey Grammer, Ken Norton Jr. and others.

Fellow Naismith Basketball Hall of Famer Paul Pierce noted the statue’s resemblance to his former Boston Celtics teammate Tony Allen and wrote “D Wade need a redo he to legendary fa this.”

Some have even mentioned it in the same breath as another infamous sculpture that eventually was replaced — the bizarre Cristiano Ronaldo bust that appeared at a Portugal airport in 2017.

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Sculptor Omri Amrany, who created the Wade statue with Oscar Léon, is not bothered by the criticism. The Chicago-based studio he founded with his wife, Julie Rotblatt Amrany, has created more than 300 sculptures worldwide — including the statue of Kobe Bryant wearing his No. 8 jersey and the one of Bryant with daughter Gianna, both unveiled at Crypto.com Arena earlier this year — and the reactions have become rather predictable.

“Every time you unveil a sculpture there are people with different comments,” Amrany told The Times on Monday. “It’s natural. Art that does not [evoke] response is the most boring art that you can have.”

He added: “We had the same thing with Kobe No. 8. After we unveiled the piece, we got very nasty messages from different people. You know, it’s their right to express the way they want, and if I’m acting as a psychologist for their frustration, so be it.”

Wade called the creation of his statue “a great collaborative process” and indicated he had tremendous input on how the final product would look. Amrany said they went to great lengths to get Wade’s likeness correct, having him model for them in person and using computer technology to study photos of the iconic moment they were aiming to capture.

“We emphasized a two-second moment of his life when he jumped on the table and was in screaming mode,” Amrany said. “And that’s what it is, that’s what happens to the face when people are doing this activity, this facial activity.

Read more: Lakers unveil new statue honoring ‘Girl Dad’ Kobe Bryant’s bond with daughter Gianna

“We are very dedicated to a very high detailed quality to deliver exactly what the exact photo is giving us. For somebody to say that this does not look like Dwyane Wade in action, they don’t know Dwyane Wade in action. Or they don’t remember that. And it’s OK for them to say whatever they want. We’re in a land of free speech so far, hopefully forever.”

After the statue was unveiled, Wade took a long look at it, then smiled, nodded and said, “Looks good,” before addressing the crowd.

“I didn’t prepare much because I just wanted to feel this, man,” Wade said. “I wanted to look at it.”

He stopped to give the statue another long look.

“That’s crazy,” Wade said, still in awe. “I can’t believe that.”

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.