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Udonis Haslem still a playoff presence for Heat, even amid emerging TV career

ira winderman, south florida sun-sentinel
·3 min read

BOSTON — The formal title is Vice President of Basketball Development.

But this postseason you haven’t found Udonis Haslem seated at the team’s practices and shootarounds with fellow Miami Heat executives Pat Riley, Andy Elisburg, Adam Simon, Alonzo Mourning or others from the team’s front office.

Nor had any of those titled officials been in sweats, on the court, rebounding, shooting, exhorting.

From the start, this next chapter for Haslem, the recently retired championship power forward, was going to be different. This postseason has only accentuated that, as if the true new title was captain emeritus.

From delivering the pregame speech in the huddle before an opening playoff game at TD Garden to shagging free throws for Jaime Jaquez Jr. during a practice last week at Kaseya Center, in many ways it is as if little changed since last summer’s retirement, when Haslem bowed out after the NBA Finals against the Denver Nuggets.

“As much as I can, I’m around,” Haslem said, with the Heat playing Game 5 of their best-of-seven opening-round Eastern Conference playoff series against the Boston Celtics on Wednesday night. “As long as I don’t have TV, it’s been with the team.”

But even when diverted to Turner Sports’ Atlanta studios for his ongoing work with NBA TV, Haslem said the Heat have been firmly on his mind, in some ways operating in two places at once.

“When we don’t play well, they’re not good days,” Haslem said of the days these past two weeks when the Heat were in action against the Celtics and he was in action on NBA TV. “So I spend a lot of time text messaging and sending messages to the guys. And then when I get on TV, I’ve got to kind of flip the switch a little bit and have to be politically correct.

“But I’m always going to be honest, and I’m always going to be thoughtful in the words that I use and the things that I say. But I think everybody knows that I speak from a perspective that I’m a little biased when it comes to the Heat.”

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At times, the work during this postseason has been public, whether it was exhorting in the pregame huddle at TD Garden, working with Jaquez or even taking to the practice court at Temple University ahead of the play-in game against the Philadelphia 76ers, drenched in sweat by the time that morning session was over.

But as during the season, there also were private sessions, including with center Bam Adebayo, who succeeded Haslem as captain.

“At night,” Haslem said, “I’ve come in with Bam and gotten some work. That hasn’t changed. That won’t change.”

What has changed, which sounds somewhat decidedly out of character, is the motor when Haslem has stepped into practice sessions.

“I’ve been doing this for a long time, so I know what to do,” he said of tempering his practice motor so as not to be the cause of injury. “So I know how to play and not hurt and not foul.

“If the guys ask me to go hard, we go hard. And if they ask me to go 50 percent, I go 50 percent.

“It’s all based on what the coaches want.”

To a degree that work will remain ongoing, including continued mentorship with second-year big man Nikola Jovic.

And, no, it hasn’t been a season of tenderizing the 20-year-old from Serbia.

“I’m more so verbal and mental with Niko,” Haslem said with a smile, as Jovic sat alongside, smiling, as well. “There’s a lot of potential there, so I like to stay in his ear with a lot of positivity and send him text messages and stuff.”