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Boston Herald
Boston Herald
18 Mar 2023
Tribune News Service


NextImg:Ira Winderman: Udonis Haslem and his Heat road from Mr. 305 to suburban 954 dad

Over the upcoming week, Mr. 305 deservedly will be honored for 20 seasons of service to team and community by the Miami Heat.

Born and raised in the hardscrabble inner-city of Miami, few players, in any sport, are as identified with their hometown than Udonis Haslem.

And yet, for these past two decades, Mr. 305 has actually been Mr. 954, living first in Davie upon his Heat arrival and now in the semi-rural setting of Southwest Ranches.

By no means has that meant turning his back on his roots, just as often found in Miami-Dade with his philanthropic and entrepreneurial endeavors.

Just a husband and father, like many husbands and fathers, seeking the better life for his family that he only could imagine growing up.

To Haslem, Broward is the oasis, while Miami-Dade remains the pride.

The tranquility of the suburbs, he said, allows the passion to flourish both in the locker room and in the community when he crosses the county line.

“I always wanted land,” the Heat’s 42-year-old captain said recently by his locker at Miami-Dade Arena. “There’s not very much land in Miami. You might get a half an acre, an acre lot. But I needed like four acres, and I knew where I could find that.

“I wanted my own peace and my own little compound. And when I leave from everything that I’ve got to deal with, I can go there and recharge and do whatever I need to do and get ready for the next day.”

And, yes, like the rest of South Florida’s commuters, there is a tradeoff, the traffic tradeoff.

The timing of many Heat practices and shootarounds means morning rush hour.

“You got to ask my drivers,” Haslem said with a laugh when asked about the a.m. chaos. “I’m on my fourth one. The fact that I’m on the fourth one, it probably tells you how it’s been like for them.

“Actually, I find it therapeutic. It’s one of the few times I get peace and quiet. I get to control my own time. For the part at my home, my time belongs to my wife and my kids. When I’m here in the arena, my time belongs to the Heat and the team. So the drive is my time. Sometimes I listen to the Isley Brothers, which was my father’s favorite group.”

What Haslem won’t allow to be lost in the commute is what the 305 means to him and how that passion has to resonate even while raising his family in a different setting.

“I’m very careful of that, that they’re privileged, that this is not reality,” he said of his Southwest Ranches compound. “And I make sure I take them with me when I go to do charity things, so they can see the other side, and what life is like for some people and not just us.”

But, he said, there is no questioning that he also is a somewhat of a reformed Dade dad.

“They like to make a joke when I get a little fired up,” he said of his three sons. “They like to say that Dade County dad comes out, as opposed to the dad they have now. So they understand the more rough, rugged side of things from where I’m from, the actual inner city of Miami.”

With Liberty City continuing to resonate.

“I take them to my grandmother’s house, where we always spent so much time as kids growing up,” he said. “Unfortunately, my grandma’s house burned down in a fire, so I was glad to get a chance for them to see that in Liberty City. It was a year ago, her house caught electrical fire.

“So they’ve seen where I came from, where it all started and what life was like. And they also understand why I work so hard to provide them with the things they have, a better life. And I think I have good kids that are thankful. They are not ungrateful.”

EMOTIONAL PERSPECTIVE: From the moment the Milwaukee Bucks offered him the first of two 10-day contracts, to his latest guarantee for the balance of the season, former Heat center Meyers Leonard has been effusive in his appreciation of this opportunity for an NBA second chance, after his career was derailed for two years following the anti-Semitic slur he uttered while video gaming in 2021. “They changed my life,” Leonard told the Journal Sentinel. “They really did. This is going to be hard for me not to get emotional right now. It’s honestly hard to describe what this feeling feels like.” It has been, Leonard, 31, said, a long, reflective, contrite road. “One day, I’ll be able to tell my son, ‘Hey, these are the people who believed in me, gave me a second chance. That changed, literally, my life.’ I love basketball, I do, but they changed my life. And it helped me in some way put the incident behind me.”

VETERAN PERSPECTIVE: Then there is Jae Crowder, Leonard’s former Heat teammate during the run to the 2020 NBA Finals, who also is experiencing a revival with the Bucks. Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer said the veteran power forward has proven to be a quick study since he was added at the Feb. 9 NBA trading deadline. “Sometimes he’s doing what we’re supposed to be doing [that] guys who have been here for five years aren’t doing. I don’t get it,” Budenholzer told The Arizona Republic. “He’s on point. He’s sharp. The attention to detail is very much there and very much appreciated and that’s coming into a team midseason at trade deadline.”

P.J. PERSPECTIVE: The voice of reason last season with the Heat, P.J. Tucker is attempting to offer the same for the Philadelphia 76ers. Having lost in the Eastern Conference finals as the No. 1 seed with the Heat last season, the veteran power forward said there is no reason to get too caught up with seeding, having won an NBA title as a No. 3 seed with the Bucks in 2021. “Now it’s funny, because of all the jockeying for position for the playoffs, and everybody trying to figure out the seeding,” Tucker told the Philadelphia Inquirer. “For me, I’ve said this countless times: I don’t care about the seedings. I’m more about how my team is feeling.” The Heat and 76ers have one game remaining, on April 6 in Philadelphia, with a first-round matchup possible between the teams.

NCAA PERSPECTIVE: With Reggie Miller opting out of NCAA Tournament broadcast work, former Heat coach Stan Van Gundy has been added to the television mix. That had him reflecting to the Orlando Sentinel on his one-and-done season as coach at Wisconsin, which had him landing the following year, in 1995-96, as a Heat assistant to Pat Riley. “We didn’t have as good a year as we should have in that first season so you’ve got to own that as a coach,” Van Gundy said of his Badgers tenure. “Getting fired certainly hurt at the time, but I got really lucky because I got fired just months before Pat Riley left to go to the Miami Heat, and it gave me the chance to get my foot in the door in the NBA. So, no, I’m not still bitter, because I think the NBA fit me better as a coach than college did.”

PERSONALITY PERSPECTIVE: Considering his stops since his Heat tenure have been with the Houston Rockets, Detroit Pistons and, now, the sub-.500 Utah Jazz, former Heat big man Kelly Olynyk has continued to earn respect as a steadfast teammate no matter the situation. “Kelly is connective tissue. He definitely doesn’t get talked about enough,” Jazz coach Will Hardy told the Deseret News. “But he is a huge luxury for our staff.” Houston Rockets coach Stephen Silas agreed, “When we were really down as a group, he was a breath of fresh air coming in here and showing his professionalism.” Olynyk, 31, likely will hit the free-agent market in the offseason, with only $3 million of his $12.2 million 2023-24 salary guaranteed if waived by June 28.

24-13. Heat home record, with four home games remaining this season, already with one more home loss than last season, when they finished 29-12. The Heat were 21-15 at home in the abbreviated 2020-21 season and 27-5 at home in the abbreviated 2019-20 season. The last time the Heat had a losing home record was when they went 19-22 in 2018-19.

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