In 18 years with the Miami Heat, Udonis Haslem has had many roles over his career. The big man is now in a different role, mentoring the young guys on the squad and holding everybody accountable, maintaining the famous ‘Heat Culture’ untouched.
Back in the day, however, Haslem was more notorious and impactful on the court, going at it with rivals trying to defend his team. But, rivals weren’t the only ones that suffered from his anger.
Talking with GQ, the power forward revealed some details of his time in the league and Miami. He even claimed that the Heat Big 3 wouldn’t have won any championship without him during their four-year tenure.
Moreover, he talked about his best and worst fights, revealing he once got into it with Gary Payton and the point guard used a curious tool to hit him.
What were your best and worst fights over the last 20 years?
Worst fight? Me and Gary Payton got into it at practice once. I don’t know what we were talking about, but shit went left. We started arguing and Gary went and got a broomstick! Pat [Riley] kicked us outta practice. We had a game that night and me and Gary didn’t speak the whole game. He was finna hit me wit’ a broomstick!
Best fight? Probably the one when Shaq and Pat got into it. It wasn’t even a fight, they were just going at it. The fight was me trying to hold Shaq back and he threw me like a sack of potato chips…I’m trying to save Pat’s old ass and Shaq grabbed me and swung me. He threw me down like that and I was just trying to stop him. Imagine if he really wanted a piece of me? I would’ve had to tase him!
Udonis has lived plenty of things in the past 20 years. As he explained, some are better than others, but he doesn’t deny them. The 41-year-old is still part of the team, trying to build a winning team again.
He’s got his teammates back, supporting Tyler Herro’s claims of being at the same level as the league’s top young players. The Heat legend is, according to Blake Griffin, the most respected player in the association, and he’s earned that with his actions.
The Heat are trying to make some noise this season, and after bringing a couple of interesting pieces, they are ready to compete.
