Udonis Haslem Unsure About 20th NBA Season With Miami Heat
Coming off a 53-29 season in which they claimed the 1-seed in the Eastern Conference, the Miami Heat have the mentality of “championship or bust” entering the 2022-23 season.
While he may not make much of an impact on the court anymore given that he is now 42-years-old, Udonis Haslem has still proven to be one of the leaders of the Heat and has been an extremely valuable mentor for a lot of the young talents that have been apart of the Miami Heat organization through the years.
Winning three titles with Miami in 2006, 2012 and 2013, Haslem could become just the ninth player in NBA history to play 20-plus seasons should he return for the 2022-23 season in Miami. Not to mention, he would become just the third player in NBA history to spend 20-plus seasons with the same team, joining Dirk Nowitzki (Dallas Mavericks) and the late, great Kobe Bryant (Los Angeles Lakers).
The option to return to the Heat for the 2022-23 season is on the table for Haslem, yet he is still contemplating his future and whether or not he does want to still be a “player” in the NBA.
Being 42-years-old, Udonis Haslem is the oldest player in the NBA by 4 years and he truly is nothing more than a mentor on the bench and in the locker room that leads the team through his past experiences. A decision to return for a 20th season will likely be made ahead of training camp at the end of September, but Haslem is still very unsure about if he is done or not.
“I don’t know. We’re thinking about it,” Haslem said Monday afternoon at Nova Southeastern University after he and FTX awarded two South Florida minority-owned small businesses with $50,000 grants, this according to the Miami Herald. “But either way, I’m always going to be a part of that Heat family. I ain’t going nowhere. Whether I play or not, I’m always going to impact that organization.
“Hopefully one day we talk about ownership and being in that situation where I continue to be somewhat of a leader, but more be a hybrid owner. An owner that gets out there and does more than just sit on the sideline, cross his legs and watch. I want to work. I want to continue to push the culture and continue to impact the next generation of winning for the Miami Heat.”
Playing in the league for 20 seasons has always been a goal of Haslem’s, but it truly does seem like he is at a crossroads this offseason, especially after coming so close to making the NBA Finals again this past year.
“For me, there’s just a lot going on,” Haslem continued. “I had a lot of things that I had to really, really think about. Twenty years was a conversation that I had with my father. But as he passed, we think about now and things change. He’s not here no more and goals change, my vision has changed a little bit. But it’s still something that I battled with because it’s something that we talked about and it’s something that we wanted to do in a specific way.”
If he was to play during the 2022-23 season for the Miami Heat, Udonis Haslem would become one of the oldest players to ever play in a game in NBA history and he would add on to what has been a remarkable, long-standing career.
However, if he does retire, it will be interesting to see what capacity he joins the Heat in whether he becomes a coach, front-office executive, etc.
Time will tell what the future holds for Udonis Haslem, a player that will forever go down as a Miami Heat legend.
