MIAMI – Dwyane Wade’s new statue celebrates a moment when he won a game with his offense. The feedback on the statue made him play defense.

Wade explained the look of the statue and the process of creating it on Monday, a day after the Heat unveiled the tribute. The statue – with a face that is, to say the least, not a perfect representation of Wade – was immediately a topic of conversation, trending worldwide on social media and even featured in national news broadcasts.

“If I wanted it to look like me, I would just stand outside the arena and y’all can take pictures,” Wade said Monday. “It doesn’t have to look like me. It’s the artistic version of a moment that happened and we try to enhance that.”

That moment came at the end of a game against the Chicago Bulls in March 2009, when, attempting a win at the double-overtime buzzer, he jumped onto a courtside table and shouted, “This is my house.” The position of his hands in the image is reminiscent of that moment. But it’s the face that has generated almost all the feedback.

“I care, but I don’t,” Wade said. “The world of social media is all about opinions. Everyone has an opinion. Everyone, use your opinions. Please talk about us more. Talk about a statue more, come down to see it, take some pictures, send some memes. We doesn’t matter.”

Later Monday, during a halftime ceremony during the Detroit-Miami game — played on the 21st anniversary of Wade’s debut with the Heat — Wade told the crowd that the statue was for them, too. He also continued to defend the work, saying the statue does not depict a human body and calling it “art at its best.”

“There are only a few organizations that have a statue outside. There are less than 15 players who have played this basketball game that have a statue outside. We – we – have a statue outside,” Wade told the crowd. “So I am proud that I am the vessel that is used, that I am the chosen one. I am proud because we have worked very, very, very hard to create an image that will last for a very long time .” that expresses what the Miami Heat, my family and our fan base stand for.

“So don’t let anyone talk about our house. Because this is our house. They are on the outside. Leave them out there.”

Sculptors said it took about 800 hours of work to create the statue, and that Wade was directly involved in the process. Most people saw the image for the first time on Sunday; Wade had seen parts of it along the way, including the face.

He praised the work the sculptors did.

“I don’t know many people with statues. Do you? Does anyone here know anything about the statue process? No one out there knows either,” Wade said. “And so it’s an incredible 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 receive a statue. The team hasn’t definitively said whether it will add more in the coming years. The unveiling of Wade’s statue 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 and iconic moments.”

Wade said some of the memes that made him laugh were the ones that suggested the statue looked more like actor Laurence Fishburne than the three-time NBA champion and Basketball Hall of Famer. He also said that it is unfortunate that the artists received negative feedback. Studio Rotblatt Amrany, a Chicago-area company, was commissioned to create the Wade statue.

“Every time they create something, someone has to come out and say something about their creation. They can’t 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, go furthermore, whatever.