3x NBA Champ Udonis Haslem Talks 20yr Career, His Miami Teammates & His Proudest Moment

FOLLOW THE PIVOT PODCAST: MERCH | https://pivotpodcast.com YOUTUBE | https://www.youtube.com/thepivotpodcast INSTAGRAM | https://instagram.com/thepivot TWITTER | https://twitter.com/thepivot TIKTOK | https://tiktok.com/@thepivot FACEBOOK | https://www.facebook.com/thepivotpodcast FOLLOW HAPPY DAD: https://www.instagram.com/happydad FIND HAPPY DAD: https://www.happydad.com/find With one of the most unique careers in professional sports, Miami Heat’s Udonis Haslem is set to say farewell to basketball after a 20-year career and is sitting with Ryan, Channing and Fred ahead of his last week of regular season play to talk everything basketball, life and what’s been most important to him. Not holding back in any areas, this conversation journeys a young boy from Liberty City and how he beat the odds and turned his opportunities into a two decade long career embracing his role on the Heat and continuously finding ways to benefit his teammates. Winning three championship titles with the Heat, Udonis has played with some of the game’s best players from Lebron to D Wade to Shaq to Chris Bosh to Ray Allen to many more and attributes his long lasting career to the relationships he sustained over time and his endless work ethic. As the guys dive into his childhood and early playing years, UD reveals the pain he felt losing his mother, who he just recently reunited with, and how the loss of his father led him down a different path and approach of opening up to people and asking for help when he needed it. He stressed the importance of finding balance and how his three rings mean the world to him but he’s most proud of his work giving back in the community. As the OG of the league, UD shares his thoughts on this year’s NBA MVP, which he feels should be Joel Embiid or Giannis, as they are above and beyond on the court. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:01Speaker 00

  Every game day, you show up for your team. Now, it's your time.

• 0:11Speaker 00

  Ask your prescriber about Wegovy. Semaglutide injection, 2.4mg a GLP-1. Call 1-8334-WEGOVIE or visit wegovie.com to view the medication guide and to learn more about Wegovy. Why wait?

• 0:31Speaker 01

  They know.

• 0:35Fred Taylor?

  Not always, you know, people doing what's up, right?

• 0:39Channing Crowder?

  There's a lot of gators in here right now.

• 0:40Ryan Clark?

  There's a lot of gators in there, gator.

• 0:41Channing Crowder?

  A lot of gators in there.

• 0:43Ryan Clark?

  I call you something, go down, gator.

• 0:44Channing Crowder?

  Hey, and the thing is too, it ain't like soft ones.

• 0:47Ryan Clark?

  Yeah.

• 0:48Channing Crowder?

  You know what I'm saying?

• 0:48Speaker 05

  Everybody can be a gator.

• 0:49Channing Crowder?

  Yeah, oh, here he go.

• 0:51Ryan Clark?

  That's a fact.

• 0:52Channing Crowder?

  Everybody can't make it. What happened to you?

• 0:53Speaker 05

  We lined up on this side. You see, we lined up on this side.

• 0:59Channing Crowder?

  They offered me though. Hey, here was funny. You was hitting them, I was DMing them. Like, he was like, hey, Chan.

• 1:06Ryan Clark?

  I was waiting on this. I was waiting on this. These are my guys.

• 1:10Speaker 05

  I was like, we on the clock. We on the clock for a minute.

• 1:14Channing Crowder?

  That's the thing with the, um, the four days of 40. And everything they doing for you over there and all. We were like, I said, we gotta get down here and grab you. Yeah, man. The old man, you got us.

• 1:25Speaker 05

  It's hard though. We in the, we in the middle of a little push right now. I can't focus on the four days of 40 right now. Been a little push right now. It's a tight little squeeze right now.

• 1:34Channing Crowder?

  Yeah.

• 1:34Speaker 05

  I'm saying, so.

• 1:35Channing Crowder?

  I just jumped up about to play in.

• 1:36Speaker 05

  Yeah, the competitor in me, I can't really focus on that. I'm saying.

• 1:40Channing Crowder?

  A competitor, yeah, competitor.

• 1:42Speaker 05

  Yeah. I was, listen, what you think I'm here for? If we don't win, then I don't. It ain't, I tell you, it's built on winning. My ass would be over there playing in North Korea somewhere right now if we wasn't winning.

• 1:54Channing Crowder?

  You still be playing if you want with it?

• 1:57Speaker 05

  Go watch the film, man.

• 1:59Channing Crowder?

  But you would wanna, at your age?

• 2:02Speaker 05

  I go upstairs every day. This man watch me? What I do upstairs?

• 2:09Speaker 05

  Now Jimmy's win now.

• 2:10Ryan Clark?

  Yeah.

• 2:10Speaker 05

  He's a bad motherfucker.

• 2:11Ryan Clark?

  Yeah.

• 2:12Speaker 05

  But go to war with them boys. Now we talking about going full court now. I don't know how many laps I got up and down here.

• 2:18Ryan Clark?

  Yeah.

• 2:19Speaker 05

  Now that's different. But now when we get in, we get in the one on ones, we go our spots.

• 2:23Ryan Clark?

  Yeah.

• 2:24Speaker 05

  Shit, I get that work now.

• 2:26Ryan Clark?

  I mean, sure you been doing it in the league two decades though. Twenty. You gotta think about that. Anytime you do something that long at the highest level, you different.

• 2:34Speaker 06

  Hold up. Limited, take a stomach cap pin in it. I fight the head of witness it. Got my people feeling militant. Way I'm feeling got me up. On the mission got me up. Knowing me, I got the key. Only vision I can trust. Trust. Limited, take a stomach cap pin in it. I fight the head of witness it. Got my people feeling militant. Way I'm feeling got me up. On the mission got me up.

• 2:57Ryan Clark?

  Man, first of all though, one, thank you for what you said. That's the type of loyalty we run by. And from everything I've heard about you, seen about you, I think everyone knows that. Udonis Haslem operates a certain way. He operates in loyalty and honesty. And some people can't necessarily handle that all the time. But for me, I like consistent folks, right? You consistent with me, you show up, you be the same way every day, I can learn to deal with you. It's the folks that do all this.

• 3:28Speaker 05

  Yes.

• 3:29Ryan Clark?

  That I can't really rock with.

• 3:30Speaker 05

  Yes.

• 3:30Ryan Clark?

  So just from an outsider looking in, man, and as a fan, I've always appreciated the fact that you seem to stay solid.

• 3:38Speaker 05

  Appreciate it.

• 3:38Ryan Clark?

  So that's before we even get started, man. But welcome to the pivot. You know, listen, man, when they get this many gators around me, dog, I start to get a little nervous.

• 3:46Speaker 05

  Wow.

• 3:46Ryan Clark?

  You know what I'm saying?

• 3:47Speaker 05

  It's about winners.

• 3:47Ryan Clark?

  Cause I remember when they had me on the front line in the swamp and I had to block Alex Braun. That was not song game plan.

• 3:54Speaker 05

  He ain't do it.

• 3:56Ryan Clark?

  That was not song game planning. But Freaky Freddy, man, Channing, UD, the OG, welcome to the pivot. For everybody that supports our show, we appreciate you. This is a huge one for us. We can celebrate the four for four that he can't right now, cause he's in the heat of the battle.

• 4:13Speaker 05

  I'm always fumbling.

• 4:14Ryan Clark?

  Oh, yeah, I get something. Yeah, I get something, my man.

• 4:17Speaker 05

  I can't even celebrate with my happy dad.

• 4:19Ryan Clark?

  Yeah. Go and get it out, man.

• 4:21Speaker 05

  I've been celebrating all week for UD. You ain't, you ain't always fumbling, Freddy. You already, I'd be talking shit for them.

• 4:26Ryan Clark?

  I ain't saying it.

• 4:27Speaker 05

  Yeah, I'd be talking shit for them.

• 4:28Ryan Clark?

  You gave, you gave us the business, so I ain't say it.

• 4:30Speaker 05

  Yeah, he was a bad boy.

• 4:31Ryan Clark?

  If I didn't do nothing else, I held on to that rock.

• 4:33Speaker 05

  He was a bad boy.

• 4:34Ryan Clark?

  Hey, shout out to DraftKings. Thank you for your sponsorship. UD, man, I want to jump right into it. And I think part of why I've been anticipating this opportunity is because you got it the hard way. I'm an undrafted guy as well. I understand what that type of road is like, but we can't even get to the 20 years of playing for the Heat if we don't start with a little bit of Liberty City. And for you, just reading about you, you said in 2014, you moved into a new condo. You're going through boxes, taking out clothes. You tell your wife, you find your Rest In Peace shirts. You said your best friend Chip, Fat Fred, you know, and you felt like there was

• 5:18Ryan Clark?

  going to be nobody left that you grew up with. When you think about making it from Liberty City, how does Udonis Haslem become this being from there?

• 5:30Speaker 05

  Well, they knew me back then. So I think it was just the experiences. I had so many losses, bro. After you go through so many losses, bro, all you want to do is win. All you want to do is see the people around you win. You know what I'm saying? So for me, dealing with the loss of my homeboys, then I lost my grandma, I lost my granddaddy, I lost my old girl, I lost my old boy, you know what I'm saying? I lost my older brother. You know, these are the losses that I'm having. And I'm normalizing this because, you know, we taught as black men, deal with what you got to deal with. You get up the next day, you go to work, you know what I'm saying? Feet hit the ground and you handle your business. But as I'm normalizing this stuff, I'm starting to realize that I see other people around me like this ain't really normal. Like I'm going through a little bit more, you know what I'm saying? But I'm kind of built for it and I'm getting through it. But I mean,

• 6:13Speaker 05

  it was just those experiences, you know what I'm saying? As those experiences start to build up and you start to have so many losses, man, you just want to see people win and you want to win. So whatever situation I was put in, even if I couldn't control it, I know I can control if I win or lose while I'm in it. You know what I'm saying? I can't complain about the situation they put me in. This is their team. This is their coach. They gonna do what they want to do, dawg. Whatever they want to do, they gonna do it. You know what I'm saying? So how can I win in this situation I've been put in? I've won as a starter. I won as a guy off the bench. And I won as a guy that don't even hardly play no more. You know what I'm saying? There's very few guys in any sport that can move the needle.

• 6:53Speaker 05

  With ownership, with the president, with the head coach, and can come and move the needle in the locker room.

• 7:00Channing Crowder?

  Yeah.

• 7:00Speaker 05

  I don't know if you can name very many.

• 7:03Channing Crowder?

  It ain't many at all, bro. That's one of the things that's crazy about you. Like, you smile and say, "Y'all knew me back then." But your maturity, like,

• 7:12Channing Crowder?

  there's so many words I want to pop up, like, when I got to Florida, I went to fighting and whooping ass and all this. And I'm getting compared to a dude that wasn't even at Florida no more. So I'm looking like, they like, "Yeah, oh, he over there acting like UD. Oh, this dude." So knowing me and then knowing you, but like you say, you could walk up to GMs, executives and all that, like corporate thug and that Jeezy, that Jeezy song comes to my mind like, "UD, how the hell do you do it?" Like, because, let's be honest, you can walk in any strip club in Miami right now, they gonna watch out.

• 7:42Speaker 05

  I went and had a drink at Boobie Traps yesterday with my son, man.

• 7:46Channing Crowder?

  And it's crazy.

• 7:47Speaker 05

  Yeah, man, pillow, son. You know what I'm saying? I did a basketball camp, and I had a little bit of time. And one of the guys that worked for me, it was his birthday. So I said, "Man, let's go have a drink." Went to Boobie Traps, had a drink, sat for two hours, and then I went home.

• 8:00Channing Crowder?

  And that's the thing. So I could walk in that same strip club. I could go in Boobie Traps, they show me love. But I can't walk into no president. I can't go talk to Pat Riley. I don't have no decision maker. How did you? Me and you came from the same type stuff. You made it further. You're bigger. You can do more. You can talk to more people. How did the UD you talking about, how did that UD become you?

• 8:20Speaker 05

  Once I got in the rooms with certain people and I realized that I could do what they do, I just didn't have the resources. That you weren't necessarily better than me at what you do. You just had maybe a jumpstart at what you done. That's when the confidence started to build, like, okay, maybe I can do more than just be a basketball player. You know what I'm saying? So I started out with business. You know what I'm saying? I was a chubby kid. If anybody know my story, I was a chubby kid. So I used to eat Subway a lot. You know what I'm saying? I was trying to... I ain't even wanna use Jared, done lost his damn mind. But remember they had the Jared commercial? Before Jared, before Jared started tripping out here. You know, I don't condone what Jared was on. But before that Jared was, lost all that weight. So remember we used to have to lose weight to play football. I played football, yeah, I was a football player growing up in South Florida.

• 9:04Speaker 05

  So I had to make the weight to play with the kids my age. So I started out just eating Subway, man. So my first business endeavor was Subway. I said, I wanna get into something that I like, something that I know. Around that time, I had just had a left frank injury. I had never heard of this injury before. Well, I tore my third, fourth, and fifth metatarsal. So this is an injury that only happens in like, football players have it. You know what I'm saying? Track, and they say it, I think, horseback. It was not very many basketball players that had it. So at this time, I was turning like, damn, am I even gonna get back to the level I was at before I got hurt? Instantly jumped in front of my counter. Okay, you manage a thousand other accounts that ain't athletes. What are they getting into? Where they making their money outside of sports? The people that you manage that ain't me, how they make their money? Gave me a couple of different options. And I said, okay, Subway is something I like. You know what I'm saying? I used to eat Subway.

• 9:48Speaker 05

  I always wanted to get into something that I knew, I was genuinely interested in, that was authentic. Cause I knew it'd give me my best version. It won't be hard. You know what I'm saying? It's something I wanna do. Gave me those Subway opportunities. I got into that first. It was easy. You know what I'm saying? Tedious, like down to the pickles. Once you get that round, it's just running like, you know what I'm saying? It's running like water. And then from that point on, I just continued to grow. I go sit down with the mayors, you know what I'm saying? I'm gonna call Keon Hardeman. I'm gonna come down to the commission office, yo, what's going on in the hood? How can I help? What we need? Where am I needed at? I go sit down with Mayor Francis Suarez, yo, what's going on in the city? How can I do this? Where am I needed at? And I'm go over town with the homies, yo, what y'all need over here? How can I bridge this gap?

• 10:26Fred Taylor?

  I wanna bring it back a little bit. And really just, just help the people understand a little bit of the Florida lingo. Earlier when you, UD said, my old boy and my old girl, that, in Florida, that's your dad and your mom. I really just say that, just so I can scroll it down and just pivot back. And you named a few names, which are prominent people in the community here in Miami. You know, Kadim Hardeman, you know, he represents, he's a councilman that represents mainly the overtime, overtown area here in Miami. And Mayor Suarez. But before that...

• 11:07Fred Taylor?

  We have a guy who was a superstar player at Miami High, Miami Senior High. You won a few state championships there, but you guys were stripped.

• 11:19Speaker 05

  Damn, Brad T, what we doing here?

• 11:21Fred Taylor?

  We doing our research on the pivot. No, no, we talking about the good stuff, but in order to get to the good stuff and the triumphs, we gotta always set a foundation. And I think, you know, I learned a lot from Ryan, and I ain't trying to learn too much from Channing because he way left. But, no, I just say that to say we're gonna do our research. We want it to be a wholesome show. They found out that your residency wasn't within the requirement. You were out in the efficiency in Miramar, and you guys were stripped. Talk about, you know, being a young guy, you know, working hard to win those state titles, and then something as petty as that can take them back. What sort of mindset were you in then?

• 12:04Fred Taylor?

  And how did that affect your next couple of years before you ended up going to University of Florida?

• 12:10Speaker 05

  I think for me, you know what I'm saying? Playing basketball in South Florida was already slim pickings if you was trying to make, you know what I'm saying? There's football everywhere. You got the West, you got Central.

• 12:20Fred Taylor?

  Yeah.

• 12:21Speaker 05

  I mean, you can go down the line. They spitting them out. Basketball wise, you had to go to Miami High. It was only one place to go. You was gonna get the exposure. It was only one place to go. You was gonna get better, and you was gonna get pushed if you was that good. It was only one place to go if you wanted to get up out of the hood. You had a coach like Frank Martin, you know what I'm saying? If anybody know Frank Martin, you know what I'm saying? You know, we dealing with a whole different animal, you know what I'm saying? He gonna challenge you not just on the basketball court, but he gonna challenge you as a man. And so for me, the only place for me to go to get where I was trying to get to was to go to Miami High.

• 12:53Speaker 05

  I used my grandma's address. But I ain't the first person to use their grandma's address, and I ain't gonna be the last. Straight up. I did what I had to do to put myself in a situation to get up out of where I was at. Getting dropped off at the bus stop, having to run to my grandma's house every night. So I wouldn't get robbed. I don't consider that really like.

• 13:08Fred Taylor?

  Right.

• 13:09Speaker 05

  The lifestyle I was looking for.

• 13:10Fred Taylor?

  Mm-hmm.

• 13:11Speaker 05

  You do what you gotta do. So.

• 13:12Fred Taylor?

  Of course.

• 13:12Speaker 05

  I took my lumps, but I'm saying I went to Miami High and I did what I had to do to get where I had to go, man. It was no better situation, no better opportunity. Got the most state championships in the state of Florida. Got to play for a Hall of Fame coach, Frank Martin. Now coaching on the college level, man, and we still have, you know, a relationship to date. All my homeboys I played with, still got a relationship to date.

• 13:29Fred Taylor?

  You know, having a successful high school career. Uh, what were some of the colleges, aside from Florida, who you eventually, you know, signed with? What were some of the colleges that were recruiting?

• 13:39Speaker 05

  I didn't get that call from Duke. I was looking for that call. I mean, I think everybody looks for that call. That's like, that's the pinnacle, I think, of college basketball. But no, I don't think I was a Coach K kinda guy.

• 13:50Ryan Clark?

  Nah, you not.

• 13:51Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 13:52Ryan Clark?

  You not?

• 13:53Speaker 05

  I don't think I was a Coach K kinda guy, so I didn't get that call from Duke.

• 13:55Ryan Clark?

  But you are now.

• 13:57Speaker 05

  I could possibly be a Coach K kinda guy, yeah. U L recruited me. I honestly knew if I wanted to get anywhere in life, I couldn't stay in Miami. I'd get a hell of a body here. Florida State recruited me. And South Florida recruited me. You know, a lot of the schools in the state of Florida. Um, and when you got outside the state of Florida, Clemson, um, Oklahoma. I don't know why they recruited me. I ain't, I would never. That was it. There wasn't very many outside of Stetson, you know, schools like that. Florida was opportunity because my homeboy Brent, you know what I'm saying? So Billy had came and got a couple of us out the hood. Like Billy knew what he was doing. Billy came in, came down to, you know, to Miami High, sat down with the coaches, with the staff. You know what I'm saying? So it was three of us supposed to go to University of Florida. Brent was the first one. It was me and my homeboy Seal. Seal never got in. The grades and situation didn't work out.

• 14:41Speaker 05

  But all three of us were supposed to go to Florida. And after I came back, Steve Blake was supposed to go.

• 14:45Ryan Clark?

  You get that opportunity, you choose to go to Florida, and, you know, we've mentioned a lot about being where you're from. You're saying hopping off at the bus stop. Trying to run to get home, make sure you don't get robbed, or whatever it is. You know, a lot of us understand that life. Right? A lot of us understand using a different address because that was the way you could get in the school that allowed you to get out of your situation. But you go to Miami, there's the story of you meet Mike Miller, y'all hooping before the season. You know, you knock him down, you tell him, "There's no dunking."

• 15:16Speaker 05

  Yeah, he tried to dunk.

• 15:17Ryan Clark?

  Yeah, like, "We not gonna do that."

• 15:18Speaker 05

  Yeah, but I thought that was a rule everywhere. See, this is the thing. Once I got to Florida, I realized that everybody grew up how we did.

• 15:24Ryan Clark?

  Right, right, right.

• 15:25Speaker 05

  I just thought everybody grew up the same. I thought everybody seen crackheads. I thought everybody seen drugs. I thought everybody seen violence. I thought everybody knew, "Don't try to dunk on nobody at the park." I thought everybody knew that. You don't try to dunk on nobody.

• 15:41Ryan Clark?

  Hey, he from South Dakota though?

• 15:42Speaker 05

  He is from South Dakota. But I'm gonna tell you a story about my... I saw Mike in AAU basketball when I was playing for Team Florida. We had a stick. It was me. You can't even tell them what stick mean. When we say we had a stick, that mean we was good. That's another Florida word. So, we had me, we had Tracy McGrady, we had Keon Doolin, we had Clarence Gilbert. We was loaded, man. And I saw this team that was playing before us, and there was this one white boy. I said, "What the hell? I ain't never... I heard about these kind of white boys, but I ain't never seen one." Man, he was bringing it up the court. He was rebounding, he was making plays, he was posting up, he was shooting threes. I came back home to Miami, I say, "Man, that's a white boy out here so cold. I ain't never seen nothing like this." A year later, he's my roommate. You know what I'm saying? That's funny how God work. But that... At... From that point on, Mike was like my brother.

• 16:22Ryan Clark?

  Yeah.

• 16:23Speaker 05

  You remember I had to protect Mike at Florida? I had to put my hands on somebody for Mike.

• 16:25Ryan Clark?

  I do, I do.

• 16:27Speaker 05

  They had me out there wild in the game.

• 16:29Ryan Clark?

  I ain't hear this story. You done slapped somebody for Mike?

• 16:32Speaker 05

  Yeah, it was a football player too, man. Dwight Ish, what was his name?

• 16:36Ryan Clark?

  Who he slapped?

• 16:39Speaker 05

  I threatened to slap him. That's all I had to do.

• 16:41Ryan Clark?

  Yeah.

• 16:42Speaker 05

  There was a couple people I did put my hands on. Spurrier called Billy on me, man. Spurs say, man, this is just keep him away. Keep him away from my guys. Whatever you do, don't own around my guys.

• 16:51Channing Crowder?

  But you was mad?

• 16:52Speaker 05

  I was up there tripping.

• 16:53Channing Crowder?

  Like the story, that really is.

• 16:55Ryan Clark?

  I'm about to say that though. He was, you gotta realize, he 275 though. So he's not the, he's a very large tackle. Like the first tackle in the draft that's gonna get drafted this year from Ohio State is the size he was in college.

• 17:09Channing Crowder?

  But that big dude, that size, 6'7", 275, is usually a big, nice teddy bear. You can't be that big and mean.

• 17:15Speaker 05

  If we, if we, if we fast forward it, you know, 15 to 20 years, what we have now, UD could have played tight end in the NFL. Or at least given it a shot. Cause he had that, that makeup, that build, can jump.

• 17:30Channing Crowder?

  But the mentality of it, the mentality of it.

• 17:33Speaker 05

  That's what you need.

• 17:33Ryan Clark?

  But he, but if you could, if you listen to his life and those things, he does have the mentality. And you just talked about Frank, Frank Martin. He's now at UMass.

• 17:42Speaker 05

  Yes.

• 17:42Ryan Clark?

  I believe. He was at South Carolina, K-State. Him being your high school coach, I know that has to instill a certain thing. He enlisted a football player to come beat you, come hack you at practice.

• 17:52Speaker 05

  You read about that too, huh?

• 17:53Ryan Clark?

  To get you, to get you tough.

• 17:54Speaker 05

  Yeah, I do, yeah.

• 17:55Ryan Clark?

  And, but the story I want to get to about Frank, it happens in Massachusetts as well, is you sitting down with him after not being drafted. All the things that you do in college, going to Final Fours, leading rebounder. You do all these things and then two rounds go by in '02 and you're not drafted. You're sitting with Frank Martin in Boston at lunch and you tell him, I don't know what it is I could have done differently. I've played some of these guys. I've beaten some of these guys. And you threw a Hennessy, a one man, was it a one man Hennessy pity, pity, pity party?

• 18:30Speaker 05

  Yeah, one man, one night I gave myself a pity party where I had a bottle of Hennessy and a box of Black and Milds. And that was one night. That was the one night I gave myself to feel sorry for myself. And I got to it. I stayed on American time my whole time in France. So basically I stayed up at night and I took naps during the day. And I went on this crazy diet. And my mindset that when I came back, you know what I'm saying, I was just gonna be a different player. I think a lot of people do make the mistake of saying, oh, he made a mistake. He made this mistake. He did this. He should have picked me. Yeah, I felt like that, but then at the end of the day, it don't matter how I feel. You know what I'm saying? Cause how I feel didn't get me drafted. So I took a look at myself in the mirror and said, okay, what can I do differently? Now, with that being said, I still remember the coaches and the teams that lied and said they was gonna draft me. You know what I'm saying? I never forgot that. Oh, I know their names, dawg.

• 19:16Speaker 05

  Every chance I get, I put that thing on there. Every chance, every chance.

• 19:21Ryan Clark?

  You done played 20 years. You have revenge from 20 plus years ago?

• 19:25Speaker 05

  Yes, yes.

• 19:26Ryan Clark?

  Why?

• 19:26Speaker 05

  Nate McMillan was the coach with Seattle. He said he was gonna draft me with his second round pick. He took Reggie Evans. Now Reggie Evans is another Florida boy, and he my dog. Much respect and much love to Reggie Evans. But you didn't do what you told me you was gonna do.

• 19:38Ryan Clark?

  But that goes back to your, to your values. And why your name is so clean on everywhere on the streets and the, and the boardroom.

• 19:45Speaker 05

  I'm gonna definitely do what I say I'm gonna do. Every time, every time.

• 19:49Ryan Clark?

  In, in doing what you say you're gonna do, when it's 03, you get offered a contract about $366,000 for a year. I, I talk about numbers in that, in that way because these two men don't understand the undrafted process. The, the way that they see you, the way that even when you prove certain things, you still have to fight for a certain level of respect that's shown in money.

• 20:18Speaker 05

  Yes.

• 20:18Ryan Clark?

  That, that's shown in contracts. But you do get that contract. It's five weeks after Dwyane Wade is drafted to the Miami Heat. What was that rookie season like in building that relationship with someone you call a brother?

• 20:33Speaker 05

  So the thing with the Heat was, and that's how this business work. They don't really want you till somebody else wants you. I was supposed to go to San Antonio.

• 20:39Ryan Clark?

  Okay.

• 20:39Speaker 05

  After I played with Miami Heat, I went to San Antonio. I had a great training, uh, summer league with San Antonio. They offered me a one-year deal. The Heat comes back after they offered me a one-year deal and I say, okay, now we'll take them. And they offered me a two-year deal. So that's how I end up with the $300,000 the first year and about $700,000 the second year. But me and Dwyane had so much in common. First of all, when he first came down, I don't know if y'all remember my homeboy Drac. He used to be with me in Gainesville all the time, troublemaker. But he used to be with me in Gainesville all the time. So my homeboy Drac said, man, y'all just drafted this kid out of Marquette that had a triple double. Now, mind you, I was in France. I ain't seen none of this. I don't know who the hell he talking about. You know what I'm saying? But as soon as I got a chance to meet Dwyane, I realized how much we had in common. Both of our mothers struggled with drug addiction, different things like that. You know, we both have fathers who came from an athletic background and played the game of basketball,

• 21:23Speaker 05

  but didn't reach that level that they would like to reach too. But they kicked our ass to make sure we reached that level. And we both just had a lot of things in common. So, you know, when he came down, a quiet kid, man, and we were both just working out every day. You know what I'm saying? I think at that time. The training with the heat was in the morning, you get up, you hit the track in the morning. So we was getting up, hitting the track in the morning. We would go straight to the weight room. After the weight room, we were at individual instructions, which was basically our workout. Then we would eat lunch, we would take it out, and then we would come back and work out again. And then we would play pickup at Overtown Youth Center, Zo's Youth Center. So literally every day, that was me and Dwayne's schedule. And we were just hanging out every day. And me being from Miami, I'm like, okay, you get the night off, we gonna do something, you come slide with me. You remember they had the Improv over in the Grove? So we used to stay right in the hotel.

• 22:07Speaker 05

  Man, come on over here, man, let me take you over here, we gonna have a good time. And that's just how our relationship grew.

• 22:11Fred Taylor?

  Aside from Dwayne, you had an opportunity to play with other Hall of Famers. You know, you, you, you played with Bron, Ray Allen, Shaq, obviously, Gary Payton. You just mentioned Wade. And, and, and those guys, you know, you, I, I think in terms of supporting cast, you're like they're Robin. You, you can be the Joker, you know, if I look at it. But at the very end of it all, you're much more like Batman, protecting Gotham City. And that's what Miami is to you, Gotham City. Why, why is Miami so important to you? You, you're Mr. Miami, you're undrafted, you've been here at this organization for 20 years.

• 22:56Fred Taylor?

  The fans love you. Why is, you know, Miami so important to you? Everything is 305, Dade County, Miami, yo. You exemplify the South.

• 23:09Speaker 05

  Well, you gotta understand, first and foremost, I remember a time where the South used to get disrespected. They ain't wanna listen to our music, they ain't played our music in the clubs. I go somewhere, I ask them to play Trick Daddy, and they tell me, get out his face. You know what I'm saying? So first and foremost, we got just a lot of pride, period, from coming from the 305 and being at the bottom of the map. You know what I'm saying? So that's just who we are and what we are. Secondly, I have had an opportunity to come, to play with a lot of greatest players that ever played a game. But at the end of the day, you still coming to my city.

• 23:38Fred Taylor?

  Right.

• 23:39Speaker 05

  Whoever you are, as great as you are, you coming to my city. You know what I'm saying, so it's always been that respect, it's always been that love. I'm giving who give to me, man. I'm at a point in my life where I love who love me back. And I've been all around the world and nobody loved me more than these people in my city. And I'd be crazy, you know what I'm saying, selfish as hell not to give that love back and not to use my platform. To give some kind of, you know, lifeline to these people who give me so much support and have done so much for me. Because at the end of the day, you gotta have something bigger in this game. If you just going out for your numbers every night, just to get your shots up, dawg, or just to look good to get your check, you ain't gonna be no champion. But if you playing for something bigger every night, and that was just my bigger, the city,

• 24:20Speaker 05

  the people that depend on me, people that's watching me. Cause if I don't get it out the mud or I don't handle my business, my boys gonna let me know. Boy, your ass stunk it up tonight, boy. Your ass stunk it up tonight, boy. I mean, my whole thing against Dirk and the whiskey in that Dallas finals, was my homeboy telling me, boy, you come back here, that white boy tell your ass up, boy. You already know what we gonna let you do. You already know.

• 24:42Fred Taylor?

  Dirk gonna get buckets, cause that's Dirk. Yeah. You gotta have a type of heart to make sure you try and balance it out. So of those three roles, I mentioned Robin as being supporting Cass, right? Or the supporter of the superstars. I mentioned the villain, protecting your teammates. A lot of them NBA guys be soft, UD. You not. We already know that. And then Batman.

• 25:10Fred Taylor?

  Having and protecting and having pride in your city. Of those three roles, which one did you enjoy the most?

• 25:18Speaker 05

  At different stages of my life, right now I enjoy being Batman.

• 25:22Fred Taylor?

  Okay.

• 25:23Speaker 05

  There was a time where I enjoyed being the villain.

• 25:25Fred Taylor?

  Yeah.

• 25:26Speaker 05

  I enjoyed the fact that, you know what I'm saying, you knew I wasn't nothing to play with. And I still ain't, but I enjoyed the fact that it just was a thing. Now I don't care about that because I think I'm more liked now as Batman, even from other guys around the league. I think that's how it's grown for me to be who I am now. I'm not just the OG of this basketball team. I'm kind of the OG of the league. I have relationships with guys all over this league. You'd be surprised how many of these young guys reach out to me because social media is you can just DM anybody. So there's other guys from other teams that just DM me and ask me a question, you know what I'm saying? So I'd be surprised how many guys reach out to me and value my opinion or even care what I think. And I give that to them. What I've been able to do, because I've always made it about the young guys. When I see these young guys from my other team, and I watched them play the other night,

• 26:10Speaker 05

  and he missed a layup or a dunk, I let him know, "Hey, young fella, I watched your ass miss that layup the other night. Tighten up. You owe me one."

• 26:16Channing Crowder?

  Right.

• 26:16Speaker 05

  You know what I'm saying? Something like that. And this is my bad OG. And at that point, I done broke the ice. You know what I'm saying? And every time I see them, it's a conversation from that point on.

• 26:25Fred Taylor?

  Yeah, you talk about being surprised with the young guys. What was the moment like, the first time a young guy said, "I wasn't even born when you started playing in the NBA"?

• 26:38Speaker 05

  Damn.

• 26:39Fred Taylor?

  You had that moment yet?

• 26:40Speaker 05

  Yeah, I had, well, close to damn near not being born. Yeah, I had that moment, and I have it all the time.

• 26:45Fred Taylor?

  Who was the player?

• 26:48Speaker 00

  Every game day, you show up for your team. Now, it's your time.

• 26:58Speaker 00

  Ask your prescriber about Wegovy. Someaglutide injection, 2.4 milligrams a GLP-1. Call 1-833-4-WEGOVIE, or visit wegovie.com to view the medication guide and to learn more about Wegovy. Why wait?

• 27:17Speaker 05

  Shit, probably Tyler Hero. I mean, when we first got Hero, he was like 18 when he first came to us.

• 27:23Channing Crowder?

  Yeah.

• 27:23Speaker 05

  You know what I'm saying? So he probably wasn't even born, or just being born when I got here. It's crazy and it's funny, but man, I mean, I can relate. It's only very few guys that are gonna be LeBron, Dwyane, Magic, Kobe. Most of you guys are gonna be somewhere in the middle.

• 27:40Channing Crowder?

  Yeah.

• 27:41Speaker 05

  Most of you guys are gonna have to play a role to win. Regardless of how much they pay you, because the market goes up and down, most of you guys are gonna have to play a role. So I'm relatable to more of the guys in the league than not.

• 27:51Channing Crowder?

  Yeah.

• 27:51Speaker 05

  You might, some of them, some of them might think they stars.

• 27:54Channing Crowder?

  Yeah.

• 27:54Speaker 05

  But you're a role player. You're playing a role to help your team win. You know what I'm saying? So for me, I'm relatable to every guy on every level, whatever your role may be.

• 28:03Channing Crowder?

  Nobody loves to bully you, D, but people love you. Like, nobody loves to bully. And you just said, it's funny because like you, you, like you talking about fighting, and you be like, "And I still got it." Like, you wanna let them know, "I whooped some ass."

• 28:15Speaker 05

  Yeah, I don't play that. I got that from my old boy, though. God bless his soul.

• 28:18Channing Crowder?

  At 42?

• 28:19Speaker 05

  I used to talk to him. He'd be in the stands after the game. I'd say, "Listen, man, you can't be doing that." You can't be doing that, man. Yeah, I mean, that's what it is, man. But one thing is, I don't bother nobody.

• 28:29Channing Crowder?

  Yeah.

• 28:29Speaker 05

  I don't bother nobody and I don't look for no trouble, but I don't tolerate disrespect. But I give everybody, the janitor, the CEO, the same respect. Good morning, please, thank you, how you doing? Have a nice day. All right, bye. Whatever it might be, I treat everybody the same.

• 28:43Channing Crowder?

  But especially on the court. Because I remember when you choked the hell out the white boy, Hansbrough.

• 28:47Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 28:47Channing Crowder?

  Choked the hell out of him.

• 28:48Speaker 05

  He started it, though. See, once again, I ain't started.

• 28:50Channing Crowder?

  What, he take a, he took a cheap shot on D Wade?

• 28:52Speaker 05

  I got my cheap shot the game before, see, people don't remember that.

• 28:54Channing Crowder?

  Yeah.

• 28:55Speaker 05

  People don't remember that.

• 28:55Channing Crowder?

  Got busted up.

• 28:56Speaker 05

  Yeah, see what I'm saying? I got hit by Louis Munson in the eye. I took mine like a man. See, the problem is, you get this, you gotta be able to take it. I took mine. Now, the very next game, he hit D Wade, not a Munson, Hansbrough hit D Wade. Now, the thing that pissed me off is, once Munson hit D Wade, y'all could play this back, because I can see it in my head right now. They gave each other five. That right there was when I knew, oh, hell no.

• 29:19Channing Crowder?

  You asked to go in, they sent you in?

• 29:21Speaker 05

  I was in. It was a timeout, they was reviewing the play. We all went to the side. Spo looked, I say, Spo, stay out of this.

• 29:29Speaker 05

  Don't you dare, Spo, stay out of this.

• 29:31Channing Crowder?

  And going on that court, you knew what you was about to do?

• 29:34Speaker 05

  I knew, I ain't no win.

• 29:35Channing Crowder?

  And everybody did?

• 29:36Speaker 05

  It came the very next play. I was the low man on the rotation.

• 29:41Speaker 05

  Man, I couldn't have drew it up any better. That's like a football play.

• 29:46Speaker 05

  That's like a flea flicker, dawg. Dawg, I couldn't have drew it up no better, boy, I had to get him. I had to get him.

• 29:51Channing Crowder?

  Oh, and you got it, yeah.

• 29:52Speaker 05

  I got him good.

• 29:53Channing Crowder?

  But that, but that, so you, you got tired.

• 29:55Speaker 05

  But I got it hard, too, because ain't nobody do nothing when I did it.

• 29:57Channing Crowder?

  And nobody want to do it, to my point.

• 29:58Speaker 05

  That let me know right then.

• 30:00Channing Crowder?

  Because I remember you threatening Lance Stevenson as well, I believe it was. I'm gonna fuck you up, is what you told him.

• 30:05Speaker 05

  I told him, I ain't got nothing to lose. At that time, I wasn't even playing.

• 30:08Channing Crowder?

  Yeah, yes.

• 30:09Speaker 05

  And I ain't got nothing to lose right now, dawg.

• 30:10Channing Crowder?

  But is that still in the NBA? Are they, are there UDs, or do teams need UDs still? Because I think, bro, I think there's new age, I think that's, that's dying.

• 30:20Speaker 05

  Nah, not as much. But I mean, once again, I don't expect everybody to be like me. That's, that's the thing about me. And I think that's why these young boys respect me. Because I don't expect you to be like me. You don't have to be like me. I think they tired of him when I was this, when I did this. This is who I was, this is what I did. Nah, they don't want to hear that shit, man. That's the quickest way to get sent up out of here.

• 30:38Channing Crowder?

  Yeah.

• 30:38Speaker 05

  They don't want to hear that. How can I get you where you trying to go while still being who you are? Not trying to make you me, not trying to make you do it my way, your way. Now, some of that stuff you got to cut out, young fella. But some of this stuff you can keep. And you can still maintain your independence and still be a G and hang with your home or whatever you want to do. And still make your money, get paid and still win out here. That's what I try to just, that's what I try to preach.

• 31:02Ryan Clark?

  You know, all great leaders are extremely layered, right? Like Fred kind of went through the list of things you have been on different teams. And when he brought up, when he brought up the Tyler Hansbrough thing, it made me think about the fact that you also got suspended.

• 31:18Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 31:18Ryan Clark?

  For the next game. And D Wade gave you the game, the game ball. I think he went for 40 plus or something like that in that game. Part of being a leader is you can't always be the same way, right? I can't, I can't be the dude always getting on you. I can't be the dude always knocking somebody out of the air because they hit you the play before. Sometimes I got to show you that in our quiet moments behind closed doors, I'm the type of dude you could lean on. I'm the type of dude that could rock with you. And you said it's because you got, you feel like you got the game ball because you gave D Wade a book.

• 31:53Speaker 05

  Yes.

• 31:54Ryan Clark?

  During that series. I know you don't want to talk about what the name of the book was, but what has made you comfortable with being that guy? Being the guy that, yeah, when your moments are dark, it's not about playing basketball. This is about this human connection between you and I and me being vulnerable enough to say, this helped me.

• 32:13Speaker 05

  Because at that time, I had been going through what I was going through. I had been dealing with stuff personally, you know what I'm saying? And I had this book written by T D Jakes that I was reading and it helped me get some clarity. And I'm saying with a lot of things personally. And I, I think we all know it's like, if, if your mind ain't right, it's hard to go out there and perform at the highest level. It's already hard enough if you're playing against some of the best athletes in the world. So if your mind ain't right up here, you're not, you're not going to perform at a high level. And D Wade was struggling, his knee was bothering him. You know, people were questioning who he was and if he still got it. You know, at that time, Paul George was on the rise and them boys was coming. They had a good squad. I just went by his room and said, man, this is something that I've been reading that's been helping me through my tough times. And I just left it with him and I went back to my room and that was it.

• 32:53Ryan Clark?

  When you share a moment like that with a player of Dwyane Wade's caliber, it says a lot about who you are because it's not about how well we can play. It's about who you're gonna have to be when you walk out of this arena, which in the end is what we all die as. For you to come from where you were growing up, to be the heavy kid, to be the kid that was pushed by Frank Martin, and he knew if you threw up, y'all had done enough. What are some of those moments throughout this process that you're most proud of?

• 33:28Speaker 05

  When I walked in the Heat organization, when I walked in that day to make that team, it was about 50 people and they was only keeping one. So I always like to tell myself, if you lock me in a room with somebody long enough, I'm coming out. You know what I mean? And at that time, it was veteran guys there, guys that had NBA experience. But it was one play. We were going through a drill. Shot went up, hit the glass, ball went towards half court. I chased the ball all the way to half court, Riles blew the whistle, boom. He looked at me, I got spooked. Now, this is one man I was scared of. I'm not scared of nobody, but this is one man for two years, I ain't say nothing to.

• 34:04Ryan Clark?

  Pat Riley?

• 34:05Speaker 05

  Pat Riley. He blew the whistle, he stopped, he looked at me. He said, well, why didn't you stop? I said, well, nobody had to rebound. And I said, I didn't blow the whistle. I mean, I said, I didn't hear a whistle. And he just looked at me and he smiled. And I didn't know at that point, they looked at me as somebody different because I was the only one that chased that damn ball to the whistle.

• 34:31Channing Crowder?

  Is that the Heat culture that people always talk about?

• 34:34Speaker 05

  Man, that's the UD coach. I was desperate, dawg. You know what I'm saying? I was desperate. I had just been to Europe. Now, I had a contract to go back to Europe. So I had an out. If I make an NBA team, you let me out. But I didn't want to go back. And you gave me an opportunity to be in my city, at home. I was desperate, man. I would have did whatever I had to do. Outwork somebody, that's it.

• 34:56Speaker 05

  That's it. Outwork him. It's just work, dawg. Come on, man.

• 35:00Fred Taylor?

  That's the thing about you I love the most. You know, your career is so unique. And we can get into numbers, you know, Heat records. You know, there have been so many greats. You talk about Zo, you talk about Shaq, big men. You know, the Hall of Famers from this organization. But at the end of the day, you're the one with all of the records. And many people don't know that. And I don't want to go down that list. But it was something a moment ago that you mentioned after RC asked you a question about Dwyane in the book with TD Jakes. It made me think about Ja Morant. What he's going through as a young guy. I think it would benefit Ja to have somebody like you

• 35:46Fred Taylor?

  in the same locker room. You know what I'm saying?

• 35:48Speaker 05

  I would have loved to have a relationship with Ja.

• 35:49Fred Taylor?

  I know.

• 35:50Speaker 05

  I would have loved. I speak to his father, too.

• 35:52Fred Taylor?

  What would you tell Ja, you know, after, you know, the situation occurred a couple of weeks ago? What would you tell Ja in the locker room when he returned?

• 36:04Speaker 05

  I understand where you come from. I understand your surroundings. I understand the pressure you might feel to keep it real. But keeping it real go wrong, dawg.

• 36:13Fred Taylor?

  Yeah.

• 36:13Speaker 05

  You know what I'm saying? So I'm gonna show you how to move out here and still enjoy your life and still maintain your independence of who you are and what you are, but the right way. Because there is a right way. You know what I'm saying, I haven't changed. I've altered things, I've altered my lifestyle, moved things around, shifted it a little bit. But I ain't changed, and I'm very happy with who I am today. So you can still live that life, you know what I'm saying, and still be who you are. You can't be street now.

• 36:37Fred Taylor?

  Right.

• 36:37Speaker 05

  You can be hood, but you can't be street. There's a difference.

• 36:41Fred Taylor?

  Right.

• 36:42Speaker 05

  Street, they thugging 24/7, they ain't cutting it off.

• 36:45Fred Taylor?

  Wow.

• 36:46Speaker 05

  Hood, you can tap in every 90.

• 36:48Fred Taylor?

  See, but a lot of them.

• 36:49Speaker 05

  Hood, you can tap in every 90.

• 36:51Fred Taylor?

  A lot of the young guys don't understand the difference between the street and the sidewalk. That where they get it fucked up at.

• 36:58Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 36:58Fred Taylor?

  You gotta stay, you gotta walk on the sidewalk sometimes, it's a little slower pace. Ain't gonna get run over.

• 37:03Speaker 05

  Nah, listen, yeah, you gotta stay, you gotta stay out in the streets now.

• 37:06Fred Taylor?

  Right.

• 37:06Speaker 05

  That's a whole different ballgame, I don't be in the streets. I don't do that.

• 37:09Ryan Clark?

  But you, how, how does a young dude get the respect that you got everywhere if he ain't out there? Cause that's what they want.

• 37:15Speaker 05

  Nah.

• 37:15Ryan Clark?

  That's what they want.

• 37:16Speaker 05

  Nah, I used to be out there. I used to be out there, but you looking at somebody who also, all the homeboys that I was out there with, looking at me like, man, we happy we out of there. Cause the game ain't the same no more out there, boy.

• 37:30Fred Taylor?

  Right.

• 37:30Speaker 05

  They playing by a whole different set of rules. Even the dudes I was growing up with that was out there looking at them young boys like, man, we don't want none of that. No, sir, we don't wanna play with them young boys, them young boys ain't playing out there. I was fortunate, man, but this time in this generation,

• 37:47Speaker 05

  it's too much going on.

• 37:48Fred Taylor?

  Right.

• 37:48Speaker 05

  There's way too much going on, you can't, you can't, you can't straddle those lines as much no more, I don't like to straddle the lines.

• 37:53Ryan Clark?

  UD, I think the, you mentioning the difference between our time of growing up and these boys. It, you even knew, like, there was a code to it.

• 38:03Fred Taylor?

  Yes.

• 38:03Ryan Clark?

  Right, like, they understood who was street and who wasn't. They understood who was involved, right, who, who was part of playing the game, and who just lived in that environment. Those things have changed. And so when you are moving from... Successful hooper to successful businessman to father and to husband. And now you're trying to give back in the hood, whether it's through your foundation or the different things that you do. What are you trying to teach the next Udonis Haslem or the next person that's dealing with the things that you had to deal with in order to be here?

• 38:39Speaker 05

  To me, there's no love like the real love that I get. Not the corporate love, the love that I get of giving back to people. At this point, I've achieved it, RC, man. I got the rings.

• 38:50Ryan Clark?

  Yeah.

• 38:51Speaker 05

  I've gotten, you know, the record and I got a beautiful wife. I got an amazing family. I can't complain, dawg. I got businesses, you know what I'm saying? I've pretty much touched everything across the board. I like to call myself the octopus hustler. Like, I'm like, if it's out here, I'm grabbing for it, dawg. Like, where it's at? Like, what's next? But there's nothing that gives me joy, there's nothing that fulfills me more than like taking care of these people. I got two affordable housing projects. I got one in Wynwood, I got one in off Miami. Those are the things that I'm most proud about. You know what I'm saying? The rings, I love them. I'm so appreciative. Thank God, it's a blessing. You know what I'm saying? It's only very few times you get to say you're the best in the world at anything and really be the best.

• 39:28Ryan Clark?

  Yeah.

• 39:29Speaker 05

  I can say that three times. But the things that I'm most proud about is them affordable housing projects and putting jobs in the hood and different things like that. Those are the things that I'm most proud about.

• 39:39Ryan Clark?

  Like, those are things to be proud of, but we mentioned fighting for respect in your respective business, in your career.

• 39:47Speaker 05

  Yes.

• 39:47Ryan Clark?

  Right? You were the guy that they had on Dirk in 2006. You were the dude, you know, you finished with 17 in the game to clinch. But here comes the big three. Like, this is, it's all eyes on Miami. And I remember, I remember the press conference. It was, the arena was lit up, it was people everywhere. It was like a dang party, but they just had on tank tops and shorts.

• 40:10Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 40:10Ryan Clark?

  Right? And it was, we ain't gonna win one, it's two, three. Udonis Haslem is not there.

• 40:15Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 40:15Ryan Clark?

  I didn't see you on the side. I didn't see you in the back. They didn't put you in the jersey, but this was your city. This was a team you had gave blood, sweat and tears to in order to get them to win the championship they had. And now they were moving on to the big three. When you at home or wherever you are watching this, you're a free agent.

• 40:37Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 40:37Ryan Clark?

  What are your thoughts in seeing this celebration that in no way includes me?

• 40:43Speaker 05

  Oh, shit, I'm out of here. I'm out of here. You know what I'm saying? Because I know how the numbers work. I know how the money work. You know what I'm saying? I know what those guys' value was. I know what they were at that time. And I'm thinking, OK, it's time to move on. The story is, I was on my way down to the arena to personally look Riles in the eye and say, thank you. Because when nobody else believed and nobody else gave me opportunity, you did. And because of that, I have other opportunities now. As I'm pulling, as I'm getting off the expressway, I get a call from my agent, the late Henry Thomas. Where you at? I'm headed to the arena to go see Riles. OK, don't go in the arena yet. Just wait a second before you go. OK, I get to the arena, I pull in, I sit in my car for like 10 minutes. I get a call back from Hank. We got a deal on the table.

• 41:28Speaker 05

  It's not what you, it's not what you were offered before, but it's, it's, it's good money. So now, just for the record, I was offered like around 35. The Heat only had 20. But the fact that Bron, CB, and D Wade all collabed to take less money, to make that 20 available for me,

• 41:49Speaker 05

  it said enough. Because they didn't have to do that. Dwyane understood. Bron and CB don't know me from a can of paint. You know what I'm saying? They ain't, they ain't never played with me. They don't know nothing about me. But the fact that they was able to say, OK, cool, we need him. We need him to win.

• 42:06Speaker 05

  That let me know I got to give them boys their money's worth.

• 42:09Channing Crowder?

  Right.

• 42:09Speaker 05

  I got to give them their money's worth.

• 42:11Channing Crowder?

  And they trust that on Wade?

• 42:14Speaker 05

  They took that on D Wade's face.

• 42:17Fred Taylor?

  See, these are the stories that we love, obviously, but you don't hear about. You know? And, you know, I got a story. This, I always come from, I come from out of bounds sometimes.

• 42:32Speaker 05

  Come on with it, Judy.

• 42:35Fred Taylor?

  You know, I was sitting there behind the bench, season ticket holder, and I heard rumors that Bron was coming. So my tickets went from 40,000 a year. To ninety-two thousand, same seats.

• 42:50Speaker 05

  Damn.

• 42:50Fred Taylor?

  Yeah, they cut. They, they, they, they cut me bad. They, they cut me real bad.

• 42:56Channing Crowder?

  Enjoy watching you, bro.

• 42:57Fred Taylor?

  Hey, they, they cut me real bad. But these are the things that, you know, the fans and the outsiders, we, we don't get an opportunity to partake in. But, uh, it's a lot of sacrifice, you know, behind the scenes that go into play. You know, otherwise, some of our, you know, guys that we root for wouldn't necessarily be on a roster to root for them the next season. So I thought that was, you know, very sacrificial of Wade.

• 43:26Channing Crowder?

  Fred, the sacrifice is cool too, but I just heard this man say he gave up fifteen million dollars.

• 43:30Speaker 05

  That was the second time.

• 43:31Channing Crowder?

  I know, I was gonna add that.

• 43:32Fred Taylor?

  Second time, man. I was going there. This is crazy, because as a younger player, you don't think that way. As an OG now, you can say, okay.

• 43:43Channing Crowder?

  Okay, nothing.

• 43:44Fred Taylor?

  I can chop it up.

• 43:45Channing Crowder?

  Fred, I'm not giving up fifteen, fifteen million dollars at ninety years old.

• 43:48Fred Taylor?

  We know you not.

• 43:49Speaker 05

  One thing I was, was I was always self-aware. I always knew who I was and what I was. So at that time, the first contract, it was offered from Denver. I got thirty-three from the Heat, Denver offered me forty.

• 44:02Speaker 05

  I just didn't think I was a good fit for Denver. I just didn't think I, I could fit there.

• 44:07Channing Crowder?

  You can really take the money out of it.

• 44:08Speaker 05

  Yeah, I did. I had to, because at that time, I, you ain't looking at evolving, you do, you looking at you do that, fuck the whole locker room up. So I can't go there. That wasn't for me at that time. I know that wasn't a place for me. You know what I'm saying? So I, I needed to stay in Miami. You know what I'm saying? I, I could look at rosters, I could look at players, I could look at situations and say, okay, this ain't the place for me. I can't go there. So I knew the best place for me at that time, even though it was less money, was in Miami. Now, the second time I took less money, Dallas was on the table. No state taxes, just like Florida. Dirk over there, Mark Cuban take care of his people.

• 44:44Channing Crowder?

  Yeah.

• 44:44Speaker 05

  I'm looking at that like that's a great situation. But shit, we gotta play Bron and D Wade and CB every year if we wanna win something.

• 44:51Channing Crowder?

  Right.

• 44:52Speaker 05

  I'm gonna go ahead and stay over here. This is my best chance to win these championships. With that being said, I gotta get these boys their money where they depending on me.

• 45:01Channing Crowder?

  And, and there's another rumor quickly. That, that, that, that time, those times, all the money you sacrifice. That the Heat organization, somebody in there, if it's padded, if it's somebody, they was like, "We're always gonna watch out for you." When they saw your sacrifice, that the Heat organization got your back, and I'll be honest, you do right now, it sure as hell seem like it. Cause you could play for 10 more years, I think, and they let you sit at the end of that bench and hang out.

• 45:23Speaker 05

  Well, the thing is, I gotta, the thing is, I gotta move the needle. You know what I'm saying? Like, if you look at it, the 15th player on any roster never plays anyway, no matter what. No matter who you got on your roster, the 15th player never plays. You know what I'm saying? So, if you look at it, people always wanna say he taking them a spot, they got a guy who can play. A 15 player ain't playing on nobody roster. So, with that being said, we went to the Eastern Conference Finals last year, was one shot away from going to the finals.

• 45:48Channing Crowder?

  Yeah.

• 45:49Speaker 05

  The year, two years before that, in the bubble, we went all the way to the finals. Clearly, something's right is going on.

• 45:55Channing Crowder?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 45:55Speaker 05

  We winning. So, you can't say I'm hurting or I'm taking up nothing. I'm providing, I'm giving something. What, what people on the outside don't understand is, because the guy is not actually physically out there on the court every day, how can he be impacting winning? There's so much that go on behind the scenes in the life of a professional athlete. You know what I'm saying? And that's where I move the needle the most. And that's what you need the most because, once we step on the basketball court, that's just routine, dawg. All the things we done been through throughout the week, preparation, practice, icing, weightlifting, all that, you step on the court. It's just routine now, it's easy, you know what I'm saying? So, I impact the stuff before you even step on the basketball court. So, when you step on the basketball court, it's just, the, the, the culture, it, it just keeps, it's just running like a machine now.

• 46:37Channing Crowder?

  Yeah. And the young, the young boys, your young boys Bam and Tyler, uh, Jay Rich was here balling.

• 46:43Speaker 05

  They my guys.

• 46:45Channing Crowder?

  Did that have something to do with you? I don't wanna say you taking credit for it, but y'all have had a lot of successful draft picks with the Miami Heat, and you the guy behind the scene.

• 46:52Speaker 05

  My position in every player that walks in his locker room's life. I take a position in their life and their career. You got veterans that might come in. And it's how can you get comfortable with our culture? Because we ain't for everybody. It's a little different down here. You got young guys that come in. And I'm gonna let you know. If you undrafted. You ain't got no, you ain't got no gray area. You don't got no room for messing up in this, that and the third. We gonna get it out the mud. You gonna be here, this what you gonna do. When you mess up in practice, I'm gonna get on you. I don't care who messed up. The first round pick messed up, I don't give a damn what he did. You don't have that luxury.

• 47:27Ryan Clark?

  Yeah, that's real.

• 47:28Speaker 05

  You don't have that luxury. And then when the young guys come in like Bam or Tyler, I let them know, hey kid, I seen you in college. I understood what you did in college. You a hell of a basketball player. I started to build that relationship with them. You know, before Bam even took a relationship with me as, as a mentor. You know what I'm saying? I was drawing Bam as a kid that grew up in a trailer and, and a one parent with just his mom. And because I lost my mom. So to see him every day, how he deals with his mom, how he loves on his mom, how he appreciate his mom. Instantly, like that just, that just, I was drawn to that. You know what I'm saying? Because often when you get out here and you get that money, man, you forget, you know what I'm saying? You out here moving.

• 48:02Ryan Clark?

  Why is that important?

• 48:05Speaker 05

  That's real. That's, that's what it should be. You should value and honor your mother and the women in your life. And I think once you get money and things start moving fast, you start forgetting about people until something happens in that person's car. And I've had that happen twice. And when I lost my mother, you never could have told me 12 years later, I'm gonna deal with the same thing again. And like, here I am, dealing with it again. So for me, man, to watch him value his mother like that, there's no, there's no woman. You know what I'm saying? At this time in his life, that he values, honors the way he values his mother. So I just love to see how he interacts with his mother. Tyler Hero came in here, man, from Kentucky. And I understood everything about him as a basketball player because I watched him before he got here. So soon as he got here, I told him, I, I knew his game. You know what I'm saying?

• 48:47Speaker 05

  I told him, I was like, to me, you could be like a version of a, a, a D book for us. You know what I'm saying? I seen your game. I seen what you could do. But can you guard somebody? Now, this is what we got to work on. Before I did that, I gave him his praise and told him the good things about him. You know what I'm saying? And built that relationship with him. I asked about his dad, I asked about his parents, I talked, that talk with him. Now you trust me. Now you understand that I value you as a human being. Now let's get to the basketball talking. I'm gonna be real with you.

• 49:13Ryan Clark?

  These kids are, are different, right? But I'm listening to you. Every great coach I've ever played for has basically, has basically lived by one principle. I'm gonna treat everybody fair, but I'm not gonna treat everybody the same.

• 49:27Speaker 00

  Every game day you show up for your team. Now it's your time.

• 49:37Speaker 00

  Ask your prescriber about Wegovy. Somemagnitide injection 2.4 milligrams a GLP-1. Call 1-833-4-WEGOVIE or visit Wegovy.com to view the medication guide and to learn more about Wegovy. Why wait?

• 49:56Ryan Clark?

  Because you actually can't. There's some people you could cuss, you could scream at, you could get in their face and they could deal with it and move right on. And then there's other dudes you gotta be like, hey, man. Like you said, and I'm not saying Tyler's this way, but it's, I'm not gonna come right at you about what you need to fix. I'm gonna let you know, I do see the positive in you. But in order for you to be great, there's this. With the way that kids are today and it seems like you could relate to them, you ever think about stepping into coaching?

• 50:25Speaker 05

  So I think, you know, for me, the good thing about every leader is you gotta understand everybody's motivated differently and then you gotta understand how to push their butt.

• 50:34Ryan Clark?

  Yep.

• 50:34Speaker 05

  You know what I'm saying? So understand that like a mic yell and get in somebody's face, understanding that doesn't work with the other person. Me and Jimmy could go back and forth, get in each other's face. Jimmy loves confrontation, Jimmy loves competition. You know what I'm saying? That brings the best out of Jimmy Butler. You know what I'm saying? And I just happen to be my kinda guy. Other guys, I might have to pull them to the side. You know what I'm saying? I might have to send them a text, I might have to take them to dinner the night before. So I understand that about different guys, but for me, man, leadership at the highest level, there's nothing wrong with coaching. You know, I value what, you know, coaching brings to the table. But leadership at the highest level, you know, I aspire, you know, to sit next to the Pat Rollies and the Nick Airsons and the Mickey Airsons and sit next to them.

• 51:18Speaker 05

  And that's not, that has nothing to do with, you know, my value of what a coach brings to the table, because I understand the value in coaching. You know what I'm saying? I love Spoh, I love Karan, I love all these guys. I think they've impacted us tremendously. But for me and my journey, you know what I'm saying? I think moving the needle and leading at the highest level is where I wanna go with it.

• 51:36Fred Taylor?

  You got guys like Bron, Wade, Bosch. Obviously, they were the stars of the team. But then you need guys like yourself, Mike Miller, Mario Chalmers. But Mario kinda pissed me off.

• 51:51Speaker 05

  The Little 12.

• 51:54Fred Taylor?

  Bro.

• 51:54Speaker 05

  Mario just texted me on the way over here, dog.

• 51:57Fred Taylor?

  But the comments he made about Bron.

• 51:59Speaker 05

  Y'all got Mario.

• 52:00Fred Taylor?

  Nobody feared Bron. Is that just, what happened? What happened?

• 52:05Speaker 05

  I think what Mario was saying is that,

• 52:12Speaker 05

  because I think it was some comparison to Michael Jordan or something like that.

• 52:15Fred Taylor?

  Right.

• 52:16Speaker 05

  I think what Mario might have been saying is that that MJ is a little more savage. You know what I'm saying? MJ is not a nice guy. Now Bron is maybe a little more of a nice guy. And that has nothing to do with basketball because on the basketball court, everybody knew Bron gonna go to work.

• 52:32Fred Taylor?

  South Beach Bron didn't fuck around.

• 52:34Speaker 05

  Yeah, you can't stop Bron.

• 52:34Fred Taylor?

  Miami Bron ain't messing around.

• 52:36Speaker 05

  I'm thinking he must be talking about, you know what I'm saying, just the overall attitude of the player.

• 52:41Fred Taylor?

  Right.

• 52:42Speaker 05

  I don't think he's talking about the skill set and going against this guy because at the end of the day, ain't nobody could do nothing with Bron. Ain't nobody could do nothing with Bron. You gotta know, when you lose, you definitely losing sleep the night before you play Bron.

• 52:53Fred Taylor?

  Hell, yeah.

• 52:54Ryan Clark?

  Yeah, on basketball.

• 52:55Speaker 05

  So I'm thinking he talking about just the personalities of these players.

• 52:58Fred Taylor?

  Because we know Bron ain't hitting no, Bron ain't fighting nobody. I've watched him during fights. He backs up the whole time. That ain't the type of fear he talking about. That's what I'm saying when UD saying.

• 53:06Speaker 05

  But I'm thinking that's what.

• 53:07Fred Taylor?

  He can't be talking about on the court.

• 53:08Ryan Clark?

  He couldn't have been talking about basketball. What are you talking about? Here is, like, the reason there is no argument for this is, one, UD is absolutely right. We all got eyes. When Bron locked in, ain't nothing you could do. And there ain't been nothing you could do for the last eighteen years. But we also have to remember this. As Bron was named and acclaimed by the media, King James, there were people, some of the greatest basketball players in the world, that called the man Black Jesus. When you explain it with the facts of what history says and you don't put your opinion on it, it's actually very easy.

• 53:49Ryan Clark?

  Right? When you look at the people who were tasked to step on the court with Michael Jordan, they saw him that way.

• 53:58Ryan Clark?

  You know what I mean? It's not, it's not like saying we don't think Bron could play or Bron won't fight. Man, it's basketball. It's like three dudes in the world that's ever been like him in our era. And then in the other era, it was different. The difference between Michael Jordan was he would fight too. And so I think it's the, it's the way he was viewed and perceived by those people. Because during his time, nobody had all that. You'd had that level of skill, that level of competitiveness and that level of dog.

• 54:27Speaker 05

  Yeah, and I'd get on you if you, if you tripping.

• 54:30Ryan Clark?

  Yeah.

• 54:30Speaker 05

  But what, if, if, if I'm not mistaken, as the conversation went on, Mario did say, I don't know why they wasn't scared of Bron. He did say that, right?

• 54:39Ryan Clark?

  Yeah.

• 54:39Speaker 05

  So he was saying like they should have been, but for whatever reason they weren't. And I think that was just based off the personalities of the people.

• 54:45Fred Taylor?

  I, I, I agree with that. Just trying to back it out. I think if Mario had been on the other side, it's a different perspective. You know, he can actually be in the locker room with those guys as they get ready to face Bron. So technically, he can't make that statement, right?

• 55:04Ryan Clark?

  I wouldn't have said it. That's what I'm, look, look, look, we need a good teammate. Yeah. That's what I'm trying to say. Man, I'm just trying to clean it up. Now, I wouldn't have said it.

• 55:14Fred Taylor?

  That's, but that's what I'm trying to say because.

• 55:16Ryan Clark?

  I know what I would have felt.

• 55:17Fred Taylor?

  You cannot.

• 55:18Ryan Clark?

  Yeah, I would have been up all night worrying about guarding that man.

• 55:21Fred Taylor?

  You can't make that statement regardless of if you're trying to say, well, I grew up loving MJ, so you know, I've heard other guys say they, they were scared of Mike. Just say that. Mike's your favorite guy. But as a teammate, you can't say, well, my teammate, nobody feared my teammate. In my opinion, and this is not true, I'm saying, one, I wouldn't, I wouldn't have said that if I was Mario. And on the other side, I'm trying to give him an out.

• 55:52Ryan Clark?

  I think what people don't understand.

• 55:54Fred Taylor?

  I'm trying to give him an out.

• 55:55Ryan Clark?

  Man, listen, man, the one thing, I bought it, two things to show. The reason why I came on this podcast, because I got respect for y'all. I respect y'all.

• 56:01Fred Taylor?

  I appreciate that.

• 56:02Ryan Clark?

  But I think, you know what I'm saying? Sometimes people get on a podcast and they feel like they gotta answer a question.

• 56:07Fred Taylor?

  Mm-hmm.

• 56:07Ryan Clark?

  You don't gotta answer the question if you're going to, dawg.

• 56:10Speaker 05

  That's real.

• 56:11Ryan Clark?

  Like, you know what I'm saying? You could say no, or just be like, nah, I'm cool on that.

• 56:15Speaker 05

  Yep.

• 56:15Ryan Clark?

  You don't want to touch that. You know what I'm saying? I don't think, I don't think.

• 56:19Speaker 05

  Unless he said people fear Bron, any other answer would have been wrong.

• 56:23Fred Taylor?

  Right.

• 56:23Speaker 05

  No matter what. I agree. Because even if I could sit here and articulate it and try to break it down, you know what I'm saying? Somebody could still feel the weight, you know what I'm saying? But at the end of the day, I know how I feel about Bron and I know what type of basketball player Bron is. But I also understand how people looked at MJ. You know what I'm saying? Like MJ would put them hands on you. Like MJ was a savage. You know what I'm saying? It was win like at all costs. Like it was kind of like, God bless the dead to Kobe. Like, yo, listen. Same thing. Ain't nobody playing with you. You know what I'm saying? We ain't got time for that soft shit, boy. Like you better come contribute to winning. If you're not, if you're not an asset, you're a liability. You're gonna be one or the other.

• 57:03Fred Taylor?

  We recently dropped Tyronn Lue. And what he said was Kobe and Mike was the same cat. Like they didn't take no shortcuts. They want to kill you, drop 50 every night. They didn't necessarily care to get the guys involved. But on the flip side, Bron wanted 30, 10 and 10. Because he wanted to involve his guys. And I think people take that for granted when you talk about LeBron. You know Bron knows what he brings to the table.

• 57:33Speaker 05

  Man, let me tell you something about this man, man. I seen this man work on a move. One day in practice for 10 minutes. And the man used a damn move against the Knicks in like the first or second round. I couldn't remember. The man used a damn move against the Knicks. About 10 times, like he had been doing it his whole life. And it was boom, every time he scored. It was come across the lane, going to his left, coming off his right foot, shooting that jumper. Man, the man worked on it for 10 minutes and the man told the people ass up with the same move against the Knicks in the first round. Man, ain't nobody stopping that man. Now, at the end of the day, you could sit there and be like, okay, I could try to main, like contain. Or whatever you want to try to do. But you ain't gonna stop him. You know what I'm saying? If he choose to go for it, he gonna go for it.

• 58:18Speaker 05

  But yes, he is a very unselfish basketball player. He's a very intelligent basketball player.

• 58:23Fred Taylor?

  Yes.

• 58:23Speaker 05

  Can't be a person that doesn't have, be able to approach the game mentally. You know what I'm saying? He don't go for that. That drive Bron crazy. You don't know the game? You can't keep up with him mentally? That's it. It was times where Bron would come in and we'll be going down the court and he'll say, don't worry about that. Don't look over there, just look at me. Don't look at Spo. And there was no disrespect to Spo, but we out here. I got it. Just look, follow me.

• 58:44Channing Crowder?

  That was gonna, that was gonna be my next question, have something to do with that with Spo. And you talking about playing with LeBron, who won two best player of all time, whatever you wanna say. He one of the top players ever to touch a damn basketball. But you also got Wade and CB on there, Hall of Famers. Is it hard to win? Like these big threes, Boston big three, everybody wanna put a big three together. You was on the big three. They give credit to the coaches cuz they say they manage the personalities. Bro, is it that hard to win when you have three Hall of Famers out there starting every night?

• 59:11Speaker 05

  Yeah, cuz you gotta put it together and make it work. And, and somebody gotta sacrifice. You know what I'm saying? I think a lot of people didn't give Chris Bosh the credit that he was due for how he made it all work.

• 59:22Channing Crowder?

  Yeah.

• 59:22Speaker 05

  Because if you look at the games when LeBron and D Wade was out, CB was going for 30 pieces. Easy, in his sleep. I don't think if people gave Chris Bosh the credit that he was due for the sacrifice that he made every night to make the big three go together. But hell, yeah, man, you gotta be a good coach. Spo got 700 of them things.

• 59:38Channing Crowder?

  Yeah.

• 59:38Speaker 05

  700 of them things now. You don't guess, the big three wasn't here for 700.

• 59:42Channing Crowder?

  And he's been back though. But Shaq and Wade were here too, your first championship, like. I, I, Spo was a Hall of Famer too.

• 59:48Speaker 05

  Pat coached the first championship.

• 59:50Channing Crowder?

  But he leading up and that's enough. That was from Van Gundy to Pat. And then when, um, early on, Bron wanted Pat to come back.

• 59:58Speaker 05

  Yeah, no.

• 59:59Channing Crowder?

  That was the story.

• 1:00:00Speaker 05

  That was the story, that's what, that's what they said.

• 1:00:03Channing Crowder?

  And then Pat being with Spo so long, everybody, everybody, I guess, it's crazy to say this, this counts what Spo's done because Pat Riley's been there his whole career.

• 1:00:12Speaker 05

  Yeah, they, they tripping. Spo one of the best that ever do it, hands down. And the fact that he doesn't rest on the success that he's had, he continues to evolve every year. And one thing I can say about Spo is he has true compassion for the players, which is something that you don't always have in this league. And I've watched Spo going above and beyond to help people outside the game of basketball. And that's kinda where the culture comes in, of who we are and what we are. I think people look at the culture and they just think that, you know what I'm saying, it's just words or it's just a phrase that we use. But, um, the culture is real because we really look out for each other outside the game of basketball. And that's one thing that Spo has done. And when you look at guys that have the relationship with Spo, like Dwyane comes back and sits down with Spo and Chris comes back and sits down with Spo.

• 1:00:56Speaker 05

  It's because of the relationship we build, it's not always based on basketball. You know what I'm saying? We all play basketball with a lot of coaches and a lot of people we don't keep in touch with.

• 1:01:02Channing Crowder?

  Yep.

• 1:01:03Speaker 05

  Spo has been there for each and every one of us at some point.

• 1:01:06Channing Crowder?

  You D, speaking about.

• 1:01:08Ryan Clark?

  People being there for you. You mentioned your mom and then losing your father years later. You know, you see somebody on TV, like you always look so intense, but you're cool as hell and you're positive. You're extremely positive. The one thing that caught me that you said is that it took a village to raise Udonis Haslem. And you talked about your father, your stepmom, your siblings, your step siblings, all of that. But your mom was taken from you or your mom got sick when y'all were just developing a relationship. And you talked about Bam, Bam's relationship with his mother and why you love him and loved on that so much.

• 1:01:52Ryan Clark?

  How hard was it to deal with that right when your mom was showing you and the world how strong she was after coming from everything she had went through for her to be, for her to get sick and then you lose her in 2012?

• 1:02:06Speaker 05

  That was the toughest thing I ever had, ever had to deal with at that time. At that time, that was tough. Because I didn't have my mom around during high school. I didn't have my mom around as a kid. And I think we all need that nurturing. You know what I'm saying? We all want our mother around. My stepmother is great. I love her to death. But Barbara Wooten is more so, you're a black man in America. This, this how, this, this how I got to raise you. My mother was a little more of a nurturer. You know what I'm saying? So to not really have that nurturing early on, I think it was a gift and a curse. Because I was able to endure so much later on in life. I, I definitely struggled with that. I think it was a situation where I, that was the first time I looked at, you know, things around me and say, okay,

• 1:02:50Speaker 05

  if something ever happens to me, you know what I'm saying? Let me have my ducks in a row. Because I didn't know what to do. I didn't know how my mom wanted to be buried. I didn't know, you know what I'm saying? If she wanted to be cremated. You know what I'm saying? You got family members and everybody has an opinion. So I think that was the first time in my life where I said, man, death is real. I mean, let me start to get my ducks in a row. Let me get a will. You know what I'm saying? Let me start doing these things because if something happens to me, I think the people around me need to know what to do and where to start because I had no clue where to start.

• 1:03:19Channing Crowder?

  And you talk about the evolved UD and we laugh, we laughed for over an hour now. We all knew each other from way back, just 20 plus years. Freddie T with the goals. Freddie had the slugs. Freddie T with the slugs.

• 1:03:32Speaker 05

  I had the slugs, baby.

• 1:03:33Channing Crowder?

  Freddie T with the slugs.

• 1:03:34Speaker 05

  Yes, sir.

• 1:03:35Channing Crowder?

  Fred used to come back to games and then buy us sections in the Palace and then leave just to get, just to get a young dudes a couple bottles.

• 1:03:40Speaker 05

  That's crazy.

• 1:03:41Channing Crowder?

  That's how far we go back.

• 1:03:42Speaker 05

  University.

• 1:03:43Channing Crowder?

  You've said it a couple of times, you've thought about, you've, you've insinuated a couple of times, the new UD, the evolved UD. Who is that and why did you have, what made it, what catalyzed it? Because it was something that made you say I need to change.

• 1:03:55Speaker 05

  Man, when my agent, Henry Thomas, Hank passed away, I couldn't trust nobody else with my future in my life no more and I had to take it in my own hands. At that time, you know what I'm saying? He was the person that was handling a lot of things and doing a lot of things for me. And when he passed away, I had nobody. You know what I'm saying? I had my business manager and we had built the relationship, but as far as like going out and working for me and doing different things, there was nobody there. So I told my business manager, I say, listen, we got to build our own team and I got, I need people that value me and the things that I want to do and value those things just as important as I do. And I got to trust that when I'm asleep, they working for me. You know what I'm saying? That they value my family just as much as I value my family because once my agent passed

• 1:04:36Speaker 05

  away, you start to realize, man, like, you know, like, nobody, nobody, nobody there for you. You know what I'm saying? You can get another agent, but does he know you? Does he value you? You know, does he care about the same things you care about? So I think that was the point in my life where I realized I got to take my life into my own hands and I can't trust nobody else with my life right now. I've come too far with Hank. Me to try to build that trust and that bank that equity with somebody else right now in my career, the trust that they going to handle my family and take care of my family and make sure that they going to make sure we good? I ain't had that trust in nobody. So I told my business manager, we going to do it ourselves. I don't, at this stage, I don't have no agent. You know what I'm saying? I sit down with Hank, with the heat and the organization and we negotiate and we have our conversations. And everything we've done from the affordable housing to the medical marijuana, to the

• 1:05:21Speaker 05

  franchises, we do on our own. I mean, we ain't no agent. I got a lawyer, I got a team and I got a business manager.

• 1:05:29Fred Taylor?

  We've seen so much.

• 1:05:32Fred Taylor?

  We've seen legends come through here. You talk about Shaq, you know, D Wade, Bron, you know, the Gary Paytons of the world, the Chris Boshes, White Chocolate, J Will, the Gators.

• 1:05:46Speaker 05

  Another Gator.

• 1:05:47Fred Taylor?

  Another Gator. We've seen those type of players come through here. Then we've seen, you know, guys, you know, actually rarely, guys like yourself. You know, your career has been so unique, undrafted, you know, 20-plus years, three rings. Do you think that, you know, from the time you started till now, have you could have ever scripted this any better way?

• 1:06:14Speaker 05

  Nah, bro. I couldn't have. I couldn't have. But what I did every day, I stayed away from the foolishness, the sucker shit, man. I don't condone sucker shit. I don't do sucker shit, and I stay away from sucker shit. Ain't did everything right.

• 1:06:28Fred Taylor?

  Right.

• 1:06:28Speaker 05

  But I managed to do that. And it's brought me to this point, man. You treat people the right way, man. You know what I'm saying? You move the right way, you handle yourself the right way, and good things happen to you. Yeah, I've been through some shit. I had my ups and downs. I had my losses. But for the most part, man, I've been blessed. And I treat people, how I handle myself, how I move, you know what I'm saying? I give people the same respect that I want. You know what I'm saying? It's just old-school values, bro. And like I said, I think that's why the young generation value me so much. I'm not gonna try to tell you about what you should do and how you should do it. I'm gonna take what you do, and I'm gonna tell you how you can use what you do to get where you're trying to go.

• 1:07:03Fred Taylor?

  20 years, you've seen a lot of legends, and not just good players come through, but legends, iconic players. And I mentioned a few of them a moment ago. Two questions. Who's been your favorite teammate? Who's been the most talented teammate in your tenure with the Miami Heat?

• 1:07:25Speaker 05

  My favorite teammate is D Wade. Obviously, my brother. You know what I'm saying? My brother. And the most talented is Bron. Like I told you, I seen this man working a move for 10 minutes and light somebody ass up.

• 1:07:40Speaker 05

  10 minutes, dog. And went out there in the first round and torched they ass with the move, man. It's like, I ain't never seen nothing. It's times, dog. Let me tell you, it was times in practice where this man would do something, and everybody in practice would just stop.

• 1:07:51Fred Taylor?

  Wow.

• 1:07:52Speaker 05

  Sorry, we got D Wade, we got Chris Bosh, we got Ray Allen, we got some hell of a, we got some ball players. And everybody looking at this dude like, here he go with this shit. He know, he know nobody can't do that shit. And he jogging back and everybody like, get your ass out of here, man. Like, you know you the only one in here could do that.

• 1:08:08Fred Taylor?

  Who's been the most dominant teammate? Is it Shaq?

• 1:08:11Speaker 05

  The most dominant here has been Shaq.

• 1:08:13Fred Taylor?

  Class clown or whatever you want to.

• 1:08:14Speaker 05

  The most dominant and the most influential is Shaq.

• 1:08:17Fred Taylor?

  Why you say that?

• 1:08:18Speaker 05

  Man, Shaq was amazing as, as a leader. You know what I'm saying? And a, and a, and a funny, don't take it too serious. You know what I'm saying? Just do what you do, always believe in yourself type way. You know what I'm saying? And also, he told me and D Wade after that first championship, if we win, we'll get Bentleys. We ain't get our Bentley, but we won. We won.

• 1:08:39Fred Taylor?

  Shaq lying out here.

• 1:08:40Speaker 05

  Big fella hit us with that. Me and D Wade say, man, listen, man, we win this championship, well, I'm buying y'all boys Bentleys. But we went and got that thing. But guess what? We went and bought our own Bentley. The bonus was tight. The bonus was right. He had, I had, he had the blue and I had the black.

• 1:08:53Channing Crowder?

  You bring up D Wade, I got my, my leading edge on.

• 1:08:56Speaker 05

  I see you, where you get them from, man? I ain't got them. I ain't got them. He gave you those?

• 1:08:59Channing Crowder?

  Yeah, we got a couple. We hollered at him and he, he said, I'mma send y'all the package. Just like you saying Shaq lied to you.

• 1:09:05Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 1:09:06Channing Crowder?

  I thought D Wade was lying to me. Oh, thank you so much, brother.

• 1:09:08Speaker 05

  I ain't even got those. Horrible boss.

• 1:09:10Channing Crowder?

  You got, you, you a leading edge athlete though.

• 1:09:12Speaker 05

  Yeah, I know, I ain't got them.

• 1:09:14Channing Crowder?

  Send me some of them then, man. But no, so basketball now, man. We got, we, we gotta ask you. Who's a, who you got winning the MVP? Who's the, who's the best player right now in the league? Who you got winning it all?

• 1:09:25Speaker 05

  Joel Embiid.

• 1:09:26Channing Crowder?

  Is the best player in the NBA?

• 1:09:29Speaker 05

  Or Giannis.

• 1:09:31Speaker 00

  Every game day, you show up for your team. Now, it's your time.

• 1:09:41Speaker 00

  Ask your prescriber about Wegovy. Some maglutide injection, 2.4 milligrams a GLP-1. Call 1-833-4-WEGOVIE or visit wegovie.com to view the medication guide and to learn more about Wegovy. Why wait?

• 1:10:01Ryan Clark?

  This year?

• 1:10:03Speaker 05

  You gotta go with one of them.

• 1:10:04Ryan Clark?

  This man Giannis ain't missing shots the other night. Didn't he just go through a game where he just ain't missing shots? That's ridiculous.

• 1:10:10Speaker 05

  And then Joel Embiid, you got somebody seven foot out there crossing over and then hitting you with the step back. Like, you ain't supposed to be doing that. Not at seven feet. So, I mean, you know, I would go with Joel Embiid or Giannis. But I would like to see Embiid win it, man. I think he been getting the short end of the stick the last couple of years and a couple of times, man. I would like to see him win it. You know what I mean? I'm not a fan, obviously. I'm a Heat fan. I don't want his ass to have MVP-type season against us, game against us.

• 1:10:37Ryan Clark?

  Yeah.

• 1:10:38Speaker 05

  But, you know what I'm saying? I wouldn't mind if he won it, man. I think he's paid his dues.

• 1:10:43Ryan Clark?

  You've been through a lot, though. What would you say was that one moment, though, that you were like, okay, this is it? A part of, a bout of adversity and accomplishment? Something that happened in your life and it was kind of the turning point for you?

• 1:10:59Speaker 05

  I would probably say losing my father. Losing my father because at that point I had endured so much, I had normalized so much. When I lost my father, it was the first time I actually sought out for therapy. It was the first time I went and got a therapist. It was the first time I felt like I needed to talk to somebody about all the stuff that had been going on. You know what I'm saying? Up until that point, it was like, you know, bury your mom, go to the funeral, get back to work. You know, bury your old boy, I mean, bury your granddaddy, you know, go to the funeral, go back to work. You know, bury your homeboy, go to the funeral, go back to work. You know what I'm saying? That was what it was. And when I lost my pops, I think everything caught up at once. And that's when I really needed to seek somebody to just talk to. And I think that was the thing that, you know what I'm saying?

• 1:11:43Speaker 05

  Probably made the biggest difference because we all know life is about balance. You know what I'm saying? You gotta even it out. You get too much of the bullshit, you gonna tip over. You might not get back up. So, at that point, you know, I think that was a pivot in my life where I was... Vulnerable enough to say, yo, I need to talk to somebody about what's going on or what I've endured.

• 1:12:03Ryan Clark?

  You know, it's crazy. We were talking earlier, and we speak about it all the time. And Freddie T is a big proponent of therapy. But I always said, like, I was taught, one, that depression or sadness was, wasn't necessarily an illness that black people could afford and black men. And you were told that you do just push through, that nobody cares about your problem. Some people happy that you have them. And it does take something like what you went through. Think about all the stuff you mentioned, burying this person, burying this person, going through that. And it wasn't until that happened where you were finally like, yeah, I'm gonna go talk to somebody. It all caught up then, you know? And at that point in your life, 40 years old.

• 1:12:46Speaker 05

  Thank God I had the resources, the know, you know what I'm saying? To pick up the phone and be able to call somebody because everybody don't have the resources. Some people don't know who to call, you know what I'm saying? And they just internalize and then try to normalize it. Like I said, if I didn't have the resources and the platform that I had at that time when it all caught up with me, it could have been, it could have been a tough situation for me. Because like I said, it all hit at once. My mom's, my mom's death hit, you know, Fat Frank, you know, Lil Malcolm, Chip. Like, I think everything hit at once. Weird, I don't know why, but it all hit at once. And at that time, I was like, yeah, I gotta go, I gotta go sit down with somebody.

• 1:13:21Channing Crowder?

  And do you preach that a lot? That concept, because you being the tough guy you are, and like you just said, to showing your vulnerability, man. That's like, I know it, but that surprised me, man. And that's just awesome that you just say it like, I had to get vulnerable.

• 1:13:33Speaker 05

  Hell, yeah. Hell, yeah. I tell all my guys, well, if you need to talk to somebody, don't feel, don't feel, don't feel ashamed. You can talk to me, obviously, but if there's something more, yeah, man, yeah, for sure.

• 1:13:46Channing Crowder?

  That ain't tough.

• 1:13:46Speaker 05

  No, man, you got to tap in, man. You got to do that for us to be the best version of ourself out here with everything going on. Because the thing about it in life is... It's so much that you're not gonna be able to control that's gonna come and hit you. The things that you can't control, you gotta control those. But the things that you can't control, that's probably 70% of life. What can we control? 25% of this shit we can control, the other 75 is I here.

• 1:14:12Ryan Clark?

  Yeah.

• 1:14:13Speaker 05

  You know what I'm saying? It's gonna come how it's gonna come.

• 1:14:15Ryan Clark?

  Yeah.

• 1:14:15Speaker 05

  You know what I'm saying? And how you gonna deal with it? How you gonna get up? I was just at the point in my life, man, where I got tired of getting up, bro. I had to holler at somebody.

• 1:14:22Ryan Clark?

  You know, we are celebrating not just what you've been as a man, but the career of Udonis Haslem. That's what's happening. And there's all these people in town. You in suites with Bad Bunny, you know, you all over the place. D Wade's here. So I want to read to you something that Erik Spoelstra said. He said this in 2020. Y'all were in the bubble. And the story goes that Miami was one of the very few teams that was able to keep a lot of their players close. One, it's Miami who wants to leave and where else, hell, you gonna go. But it said a huge part of it was you. And you would check up on people and make sure everybody was doing well. Erik Spoelstra said, in the bubble, years on from here,

• 1:15:04Ryan Clark?

  when we'll say, what's the Miami Heat culture? We can describe it and say hardest working team, most professional, best conditioned, and so forth. Or we can just pull up a picture of Udonis Haslem. As you're walking away, what does a quote like that mean to you?

• 1:15:24Speaker 05

  That's what I strive to be. You know what I'm saying? That's what we were taught when we walked in this organization. That's what it was about. When the Alonzo Mornings were here before me and, you know, the Ike Allsons and the PJ Browns and the Dan Marleys and the Tim Hardaways and the Vashawn Linnis and, you know, all those guys who I watched when the arena was over town, before it moved downtown. You know what I'm saying? When I was up there in the nosebleeds and those guys that I was watching, that was the standard. So that's what I aspire to be. You know what I'm saying? To know that I'm looked at, that I've gotten that far, that I've reached that, and now I'm the bearer of that. I carry that. And I exemplify that and I have to pass that because that is real. You know what I'm saying? I'm thankful, I'm honored, and I'm appreciative.

• 1:16:08Speaker 05

  But, you know, it's time to pass it to somebody else. You know what I'm saying? And it's time for somebody else to run with that and make it better because that's what you always want. You want the people to come behind you to make it better. It's like Zo and those guys came before me. I was able to just make it a little bit better. You know what I'm saying, in the next generation, just make it a little bit better.

• 1:16:27Ryan Clark?

  Like, my mom and father, they refused to move out of their house. Just refused, like, Katrina tore it down, I built it back up. The next year it caught on fire, they wanted to move back into it, because it's their house. But we've painted it, and we fixed it, and we've done construction, and we've done all those things. And everybody's cool with them, everybody knows who they are, because the inside of that house is still the same, because it's still my parents. Right, and it's still the same neighborhood that they grew up in. I think what you've done, man, is just continued to rebuild your house. You can still go back to the hood and get respect, you can do it in different places. But the reason people respect you all over is because the foundation is still the exact same

• 1:17:10Ryan Clark?

  that it was when you left Liberty City to go to Florida. I salute everything that you've done as a man, everything that you've done as a player, bro. And I just can't wait to see what that next step of Udonis Haslem's life is like. But from the pivot to you, man, you have absolutely done enough. And you get, you deserve an opportunity to relax.

• 1:17:33Speaker 05

  I appreciate you.

• 1:17:34Ryan Clark?

  Appreciate you, brother. Yes, sir.

• 1:17:37Speaker 05

  We held out long enough.

• 1:17:40Ryan Clark?

  We got, hey, we actually

• 1:17:41Speaker 05

  I held out, man.

• 1:17:41Ryan Clark?

  We actually got it at the right time now, though.

• 1:17:44Speaker 05

  I wasn't going nowhere.

• 1:17:45Ryan Clark?

  Hey, we got it at the right time now, though.

• 1:17:48Speaker 05

  I got, I got to be, I got to tell, I got to hit you with the, "Yeah, dawg, call me, I'll be..." The time waiting on y'all, man, I'm like, "Man, I ain't going over there."

• 1:18:21Speaker 00

  Every game day, you show up for your team. Now, it's your time.

• 1:18:31Speaker 00

  Ask your prescriber about Wegovy, some maglutide injection, 2.4 milligrams a GLP-1. Call 1-833-4-WEGOVIE, or visit wegovie.com to view the medication guide and to learn more about Wegovy. Why wait?