MIAMI (AP) — This story would never have been told if Udonis Haslem’s mother hadn’t moved from Miami to Jacksonville. Or if his stepbrother hadn’t been so smart about an airball. Or if Atlanta signed him in 2002. Or if San Antonio did in 2003.
Any of those things happen differently, it all changes. He probably wouldn’t be with the Miami Heat right now. Maybe never.
Haslem, the NBA’s oldest active player at 42 and a three-time champion, is in the final days with his hometown team. He’s the third player to spend a two-decade career with one franchise, joining Dallas’ Dirk Nowitzki and the Los Angeles Lakers’ Kobe Bryant.
“All I’ve ever tried to do is take care of my people, take care of my city,” Haslem said. “I think that’s why I can sit down with the mayor and commissioners, or I can sit down with people in the ’hood, and be comfortable either way. It’s because of the sacrifices that I’ve made for this city.”
Heat President Pat Riley is more succinct.
“Udonis is Miami,” Riley said.
Haslem was on the NBA’s All-Rookie team in 2003-04. He never was an All-Star, never All-NBA, never even a player of the week out of 438 possible chances. The last time he averaged double figures for a season was 2009.
But ask anyone with the Heat, and they insist Haslem — the team captain who’ll have his No. 40 jersey retired next season — has been vital for two decades.
“He’s the poster child of a guy who was average, supposedly, and yet he became great,” said Chet Kammerer, who has spent 27 years in Miami’s player personnel department. “And how did he do that? Hard work. Great spirit. Great attitude. Never ‘can’t do this,’ never ‘can’t do that.’ And the success that we’ve had, he’s had more of a major contribution over the whole 20 years than people know.”
Take the night Miami won its first NBA title in Dallas in 2006. Haslem played with a separated shoulder. He had to guard Nowitzki, the Mavericks’ best player. Nowitzki didn’t have a field goal in the fourth quarter; Miami won 95-92, Haslem had 17 points, 10 rebounds and a good cry afterward.
“The champagne got me,” he said. Everyone knows otherwise; they were tears.
Other players got headlines that night; Dwyane Wade was Finals MVP, Shaquille O’Neal won his fourth ring. But without Haslem, there would be no title.
“He’s always had tremendous courage,” Riley said. “Whatever endeavor, he rises to another level. And you need that. He was for…
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