Saving face: Wade defends his statue

MIAMI — Dwyane Wade's new statue celebrates a moment where he won a game with his offense. The response to the statue, though, has had him playing defense.

Wade explained the statue's look and the process of creating it on Monday, one day after the Heat unveiled the tribute. The statue — with a face that, to put it mildly, isn't a perfect depiction of Wade — was immediately a talking point, trending globally on social media and even getting mentioned on national newscasts.

"If I wanted it to look like me, I'd just stand outside the arena and y'all can take photos," Wade said Monday. "It don't need to look like me. It's the artistic version of a moment that happened that we're trying to cement."

That moment was the end of a game against the Chicago Bulls in March 2009, when he made a shot to win at the buzzer of double overtime, hopped up onto a courtside table and yelled, "This is my house." The position of the statue's hands is reminiscent of that moment, but it's the face that has generated almost all of the feedback.

"I care, but I don't," Wade said. "The social media world is about opinions. Everyone has an opinion. Everyone, use y'all opinions. Please talk more about us. Talk more about a statue, come on down to see it, take some photos, send some memes. We don't care."

Later Monday, in a halftime ceremony during the Miami-Detroit game — played on the 21st anniversary of Wade's debut with the Heat — Wade told the crowd that the statue was for them as well. He also continued to defend the work, saying that the statue doesn't depict a human body and calling it "art at its finest".

"There are only a few organizations that have a statue outside. There are not even 15 players who played this game of basketball that have a statue outside. We — we — have a statue outside," Wade told the crowd. "So, for me to be the vessel that's used, to be the chosen one, I'm proud of it. I'm proud because we worked very, very, very hard to create an image that will stand for a very long time that expresses what the Miami Heat, my family and our fan base is about.

"So, don't let nobody talk about our house. Because this is our house. They're on the outside. Leave them out there."

Sculptors said it took about 800 hours of work to make the statue, and Wade was directly involved with the process. Most people saw the statue for the first time Sunday; Wade had seen parts of it — including the face — along the way. He lauded the sculptors' work.

"I don't know a lot of people with a statue. Do you? Anybody here, y'all know anything about the process of a statue? No one out there do neither," Wade said. "And so, it's an unbelievable process to be a part of. And it's a complicated process."

Wade — Miami's all-time leading scorer — is the first player in Heat history to get a statue. The team has not said definitively if it will add others in the coming years. Wade's statue unveiling was attended by many members of his family and many members of the Heat organization, among others.

"It was a great celebration for all of us," Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. "We love to celebrate greatness. We love to celebrate all these iconic players, iconic moments."

Wade said some of the memes he got a laugh from were the ones suggesting it looked more like actor Laurence Fishburne than the three-time NBA champion and Basketball Hall of Famer. He also said that it's unfortunate that the artists were hearing negative feedback. Studio Rotblatt Amrany, a Chicago-area company, was contracted to create the Wade statue.

"Every time they create something, someone has to come out and say something about their creation. They cannot do what they do," Wade said. "I know what that feels like because I'm an athlete, a former athlete. People talked about me a lot, but they couldn't do what I do. And so, you learn how to just laugh, look at it, learn from it, move on, whatever. So, we good. We good."

Agencies via Xinhua