The 2020 NBA season was a weird time for everybody. Amid the COVID-19 outbreak, the NBA had to literally shut down play in the middle of the season, leading to a hiatus that lasted a few months.
When the NBA finally did return to action, teams were forced into a quarantine bubble in Orlando, in conditions many of them weren’t used to.
By the end of it, only the Miami Heat and Los Angeles Lakers made it into the final round, though many failed to give them much credit for it. For some, they see those runs as a fluke, for Miami especially given that they got bounced early that next season.
In a recent interview, Udonis Haslem spoke out against that narrative and fired back with a passion to those who are trying to discredit his steam from what they accomplished that year.
(via GQ)
“When we first walked in the bubble I let my guys know: get comfortable with being uncomfortable. I set the tone for my guys: I slept on the couch. I wanted to be the first one to make myself uncomfortable. I ordered a whole load of Campbell’s Soup and a bunch of snacks that I like, and got a little water bottle and filled it up with a little Hennessy, and had a lil’ Tequila on the side. I tapped into that dark place to go out there and get it done. I didn’t speak to nobody. I only stayed in my room or played cards with Jimmy [Butler]. Even LeBron, as much as I love Bron, I didn’t hang out with Bron one time in the bubble.
My guys need to understand what we’re here for. They’re young: they don’t need to see me kickin’ it with Bron, playing cards with Bron. We here for a reason. I want to beat Bron. I don’t need you confused! They don’t understand how I can kick it with somebody and wanna rip they head off.
I ain’t leave my room. I ain’t fraternize with nobody. And for three, four months, it was just about that. What pisses me off, man, is that people discredit what [the Heat] did in the bubble because we didn’t have a great season the very next season. Don’t get mad at me because your favorite team and favorite player was a mental midget in the bubble. Trying to fry chicken and have pool parties and sh-t, we ain’t here for that.
Ain’t our fault motherf-ckers was soft!…why discredit us? The Lakers ain’t make the playoffs the next season either and ain’t nobody sayin’ shit about them!…that takes nothing away from what we did the year before. Doesn’t change that Milwaukee swept us last year, we still beat they ass two years ago! It’s still in the record books! They whipped our ass and we whipped their ass.”
Obviously, the 2020 campaign came with a lot of unique and unprecedented challenges. And no, Miami has not shown they can reach that level of play again.
But nothing will erase what Miami did that year and instead of discrediting it, perhaps people should appreciate it.
Despite everything that was going on, and the circumstances that played out that season, the Heat kept their focus and took care of business.
Let’s just hope the same will be said at the end of this season as well.
