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

“Personally biased, I think it is one of the best statues ever created because of what it represents to us and to me.”

Not everyone agrees with this.

One of the most iconic moments of Wade's 16-year career occurred on March 9, 2009, when he stole the ball and hit the game-winning three-point shot in the final seconds of the second overtime against his hometown Chicago Bulls in Miami. Immediately afterwards, Wade jumped onto the scorer's table, pointed to 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 like it has to be something when the fans think about you, when they think about your career, when they think about yours Think life. “What's the first thing that comes to mind?” said Wade.

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“And if you're a fan of myself, if you're a fan of the Heat, I've been through a lot of moments – I don't think there's any greater than this. You know what I mean, for example: 'That.' “is my house” moment is the greatest moment of my individual career. And that was an individual moment for me to choose.

However, the statue does not reflect Wade's likeness, which pleased numerous social media users who have commented that she looks more like Laurence Fishburne, Kelsey Grammer, Ken Norton Jr. and others.

Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame member Paul Pierce noted the statue's resemblance to his former Boston Celtics teammate Tony Allen and wrote, “D Wade needs a makeover to make him a legendary fan.”

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

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The sculptor Omri Amrany, who created the Wade statue together with Oscar Léon, is not bothered by the criticism. The Chicago-based studio, which he founded with his wife Julie Rotblatt Amrany, has created more than 300 sculptures worldwide – including the statue of Kobe Bryant in his number 8 jersey and that of Bryant with daughter Gianna, both on Crypto. com Arena were revealed earlier this year – and the reaction has become pretty predictable.

“Every time you unveil a sculpture, there are people with different comments,” Amrany told The Times on Monday. “That's natural. Art that doesn't provoke a reaction is the most boring art 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 themselves the way they want, and if I behave like that, a psychologist for their frustration, so be it.”

Wade called the creation of his statue “a great collaborative process” and stated that he had enormous influence on what the final product would look like. Amrany said they went to great lengths to get Wade's likeness correct, having him personally sculpted and using computer technology to study photos of the iconic moment they wanted to capture.

“We highlighted a two-second moment in his life when he jumped on the table and screamed,” Amrany said. “And that’s what happens to the face when people do this activity, this facial activity.”

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“We attach great importance to a very high quality of detail in order to deliver exactly what the photo conveys to us. If anyone says this doesn't look like Dwyane Wade in action, they don't know Dwyane Wade in action. Or he doesn't know.” “I don't remember. And it's okay for them to say whatever they want. “So far we live in a country of free speech, 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 do much preparation because I just wanted to feel it, man,” Wade said. “I wanted to check it out.”

He stopped to take another long look at the statue.

“This is crazy,” Wade said, still in awe. “I can’t believe this.”

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This story originally appeared in the Los Angeles Times.