Heat coaches, players show support as Miami High retires Udonis Haslem’s high school jersey

Miami Heat forward Udonis Haslem’s 20th and final NBA season will include plenty of memorable moments that force him to reflect on his journey.

One of those moments came Tuesday night when Miami High retired Haslem’s No. 50 high school jersey during a ceremony held before the school’s boys basketball team opened play in the Miami Holiday Invitational Tournament.

“I was just trying not to cry,” Haslem, 42, said. “It was really emotional. I never would have thought 25 years ago that I’m standing here now with my jersey retired and just so many accomplishments and just to be praised and honored.”

With Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra; assistant coaches Chris Quinn, Malik Allen, Caron Butler and Eric Glass; general manager Andy Elisburg; assistant general manager Adam Simon; players Bam Adebayo, Tyler Herro, Jimmy Butler, Gabe Vincent, Max Strus and Haywood Highsmith among those in attendance, Miami High unveiled Haslem’s retired jersey at center court.

“It’s culture. It’s true, true genuine love,” Haslem said of the Heat support he received on Tuesday night. “They can be anywhere, but they chose to be here to support me and it was important to them. Those are the things that you can’t really put a price tag on. When people talk about what do you give somebody or people like us that have everything, you just be genuine. You do things from the heart and you don’t ask for anything in return. I didn’t ask those guys to be here, they just showed up.”

Spoelstra said he canceled the Heat’s morning shootaround ahead of Wednesday night’s matchup against the Los Angeles Lakers to allow for players and coaches to be there for Haslem on Tuesday night.

“That’s the kind of impact UD has on all of us,” Spoelstra said. “He inspires us. We want to celebrate him because we know with something like this, the acknowledgments he gets, he uses that to make a difference in the city. But it’s special. It’s fun going back to see where players are from and see them in their old environment.”

Some of Haslem’s high school coaches and teammates spoke during the ceremony about his impact.

After beginning high school in Jacksonville, Haslem led Miami High to two state championships in 1997 and 1998 (the last two of three consecutive state titles) as part of some of the most legendary high school basketball teams in the history of the city coached by Frank Martin.

Haslem then went on to start at center for four seasons at the University of Florida despite being undersized for the position at 6-foot-8. He helped lead the Gators to the NCAA Tournament in each of his four college seasons, including the program’s first ever appearance in the national championship game in 2000 to lay the foundation for future national championship seasons.

Haslem went undrafted out of the University of Florida in 2002 and spent the 2002-03 season playing overseas in France before earning a spot on the Heat’s roster for the 2003-04 season. The rest is history, as Haslem has played a role on each of the Heat’s three championship teams and is the only undrafted player in NBA history to be a franchise’s all-time leading rebounder.

“Look, this guy is an absolute winner,” Spoelstra said of Haslem. “There’s no coincidence about being a winner at every single level. Winning championships [at Miami High], going to Florida before they were really known as being a power basketball program and taking them to the Final Four with a lot of other great players and a great coach in Billy [Donovan], and then helping a franchise win as much as he has here. That is an intangible that you would love to infuse in everybody.”

Haslem, who was born in North Shore Medical Center in Miami and grew up in Liberty City, has spent his entire NBA career with the Heat and currently holds the longest streak by any active player with only one team in the league.

Haslem’s situation is unique and special, as he’s the third player to spend an entire NBA career lasting at least 20 seasons with one team. That list includes Dirk Nowitzki (21 seasons with Dallas Mavericks) and Kobe Bryant (20 seasons with Los Angeles Lakers), and Haslem is the only one to do it in his hometown.

In addition, Haslem is on a short list of players to play in 20 or more NBA seasons that currently only includes Vince Carter, Robert Parish, Kevin Willis, Kevin Garnett, Nowitzki, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Bryant, Jamal Crawford, LeBron James and Haslem.

Haslem has only appeared in five games this season and 63 regular-season games since the start of the 2016-17 season. But his value toward the end of his career has come through his leadership, as he’s in his 16th consecutive season as a Heat captain.

“When you think of Miami, you think of Udonis Haslem,” Adebayo said. “You think of a guy with that type of work ethic, that type of intelligence, the passion he played with and then beat the odds of being an inner city kid and carving a way out of the hood from the streets and making something of himself and being a man in front for the city. I feel like he is the mountain top for Miami.”

On Tuesday, Haslem’s high school retired his jersey. One day in the not-too-distant future, the Heat will retire Haslem’s No. 40 jersey with his playing career coming to a close at the end of this season.

“He’ll have his number retired at basically every single place that he’s ever been,” Spoelstra said. “... That says something. That’s not nothing. To me, I’m a coach so that just screams winner.”

Haslem expects and will get a bigger celebration when the Heat retires his jersey. But Miami High still created a moment that he’ll always remember.

“I think the Heat one will be a little better. They got a bigger budget,” Haslem said with a laugh. “But I love this. This is genuine. All my home boys I grew up with were here, man. We came from the mud together and this is something I’ll never forget.”