Udonis Haslem
Udonis Haslem
Udonis Johneal Haslemis an American professional basketball player for the Miami Heat of the National Basketball Association. He played college basketball for the University of Florida, where he was a key member of four Florida Gators NCAA tournament teams. He played professional basketball in France for a year, and then signed with the Miami Heat in 2003. He has won three NBA championships while playing for the Heat...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionBasketball Player
Date of Birth9 June 1980
CityMiami, FL
CountryUnited States of America
I will never forget that Game 7 as long as I play the game of basketball.
It's very important to execute down the stretch and get the stops, but by the same token, we want to put the games away a little earlier.
It's kind of like fool's gold. We're definitely making plays at the end of games to win, but at the same time we don't want to have to rely on that going into Detroit or with the playoffs coming up.
It is a game I'll never forget as long as I play the game of basketball. Obviously it's always in the back of our mind, how close we were last year.
I don't think it will take long. We understand what the game plan is every game going out. The transition more than anything will probably be defensively, because everybody played different defensive schemes, and our scheme is probably one of the toughest schemes in the NBA because we work a lot harder.
It is one of those situations where I have to step up and stick on the shooter and let the guard take his chances down there. I am thinking a step ahead. I am thinking if somebody rotates, then I have to rotate.
I would never approach an official in a physical manner or throw anything at them. I could see how it looked that way.
I think we understand what we're going up against when we go on the road. When we go on the road, it takes two times the concentration, two times more effort to win.
We didn't deserve to win that game. If we would have won that game, it would have defied the laws of basketball.
We came out and took care of business and that's the sign of a good team, coming out and making adjustments.
We can beat anybody. We just haven't been doing it.
We haven't been beating top-10 teams. We felt kind of desperate to get a win. We can beat anybody; we just haven't been doing it.
I'm definitely not packing seven suits. We obviously have a job to do. There's not too many jobs where people can play and make the money we make. You just focus on getting your rest, bundle up for different climates, eat right and deal with all the different time zones and everything else.
I'm usually taking my charges on somebody driving to the basket out of control and their momentum is coming toward me. Whereas the Big Guy is just taking one step back and guys are falling. He doesn't really even have enough momentum to charge those guys.