Haslem on love for Miami and retirement decision. And Heat delays start of arena workouts
Udonis Haslem is just looking for ways to help create more smiles in his hometown, even during challenging times.
In the past, the Miami Heat forward has done that on the basketball court as a contributor to each of the organization’s three NBA championships. These days, the Miami native is doing a lot of his work for the South Florida community off the court.
“The way I look at it is that I got to be so much more than a basketball player at this stage of my life and of my career,” said Haslem, who spent Wednesday afternoon distributing food to COVID-19 frontline workers around Miami. “I got to be so much more than a basketball player, man. It’s not like I’m going to be putting up double-doubles like I used to or something like that. So I have to continue to find ways to bring joy to this city.
“At one point, it was by bringing championships or by my play or something like that. Now it’s like I’m not playing as much, so how can I continue to bring joy to this city? How can I continue to represent this city well? How can I continue to be the voice for the people on the other side of the bridge who don’t necessarily have a voice.”
Haslem delivered meals Wednesday from his 800 Degrees restaurant, which he co-owns in Aventura with retired Heat guard Dwyane Wade, to personnel at the Central and North Miami Police stations and Doctors Hospital in Coral Gables. It’s a continuation of Haslem’s recent food distribution effort amid the pandemic, as he also delivered meals from 800 Degrees to Memorial Hospital West staff in Pembroke Pines last week.
“I don’t know if it’s true or not, but I was always raised to feel like people look down on Miami at the bottom of the map,” Haslem said of the need he feels to represent his hometown. “It’s probably just a mental thing that we always had down here that we’re the underdogs and that everybody is looking down on us and we were always looking up. So everywhere I went, everybody from Miami, it was just like known that we had a lot of pride and we stuck together and we always had that underdog mentality. It was just understood. It was written. If you didn’t have that mentality, if you didn’t know that mentality, you can’t be from Miami. We just always felt like that.”
Here’s what else Haslem touched on in a Wednesday phone interview with the Miami Herald ...
▪ The Heat is now targeting Wednesday, at the earliest, for the first day it will allow players to begin working out at AmericanAirlines Arena, a league source confirmed. The NBA is on track to start allowing for practice facilities across the league to open for individual workouts on Friday.
This represents another delay in the process for Miami, as the Heat first hoped to open arena doors to players on Friday. Then Monday was the target date before it was pushed back again to Wednesday.
When facilities do open, the NBA has implemented strict guidelines teams must follow in hopes of preventing the spread of COVID-19. That includes not having more than four players at a facility at any one time.
Have Heat players discussed how they will stagger workouts to make sure they abide by that rule? Haslem said players have not come up with a collective plan yet.
“But I talked about it with Bam [Adebayo on Tuesday] and I told him that his ass better be the first one in the gym,” Haslem joked. “Those were my exact words. If it’s four people at a time, your ass better be in the first group of four. Or if we can make four of you, four of you better go at one time.
“I think the way the pandemic has affected the NBA, I think it’s the worst for guys at the beginning of their careers and guys at the end of their careers. I think for guys that are just getting started, Bam coming into his own and guys that are just getting started like K-Nunn and [Tyler] Herro, it sucks. Then you have guys like myself on the bench who had a decision that possibly could have been made this year, and that sucks. The guys in the middle, they will be fine.”
▪ Haslem, 39, reiterated that he’s still undecided on whether to retire or continue his playing career at the end of this season. And yes, the fact that this season has been suspended and is in limbo could factor into his decision.
“It’s hard to really say now because all the things that I really wanted at the end have been taken away from me,” said Haslem, who is in his 17th NBA season. “You want to walk away on your own terms, that has been taken away. You want an opportunity for the people that have loved and supported you and sacrificed so much for you to be here in this time of your career, that has been taken away. And you want to have something connected with the organization when you walk away.
“Me and the Miami Heat will always be connected, that hasn’t been taken away. But I wanted to have the opportunity to sit down and plan something with them. I’ll never have something close to like what Dwyane had. But the organization and myself deserve to have one particular night when we have a situation collectively to represent one another and do it the right away.”
Even if the season is saved, games are expected to be played without fans in attendance. That means Haslem’s final NBA game, if he retires this year, won’t include the farewell he expected.
“That would really suck,” Haslem said. “I owe a lot to a lot of people who sacrificed a lot through the years for me to get to this point in my career. They sacrificed a lot. When I thought about my last game and last year and how I would do it personally, it would be completely different compared to other people who support me and love me and have been there for me the last 17 years. So selfishly, I would just disappear. But I owe a lot of people that night. That night, whenever it happens, it won’t be about me. Just know it will be about them.”
▪ If the current NBA season does resume in the near future, the idea of keeping teams in a quarantined zone where games can be played has reportedly been discussed by various sports.
For the NBA, creating a bubble in Las Vegas or Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando are two possibilities, according to reports.
“It ain’t going to be easy,” Haslem said of trying to sell players on playing the remainder of the season in a quarantined bubble. “A large part of competing at this high level is mental health. I don’t know how easy it is just to confine guys and only let them out when it’s time to play games. I’ve come to know how important it is to have some time away from the game, some time away from your teammates, a walk in the park, certain things like that that I never really thought would have been beneficial. I’ve grown to understand how powerful things like that could be in the midst of an NBA season.
“You have to be prepared for the mental health part of it, too, because guys need that. You need that. You can’t just go from the games and straight to the room and lock in and get ready for the next one. It doesn’t work like that. And that’s coming from somebody who’s probably one of the most mentally tough people you’re going to meet. But you have to have outlets.”
