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Udonis Haslem played his final regular-season NBA game on Sunday. The 42-year-old has put together an impressive career for multiple reasons. Not only is Haslem still around after being in the NBA since the 2003 season, but he's also a multi-time champion.
Haslem has played for the Miami Heat throughout his 20-year NBA career and has won three championships with them.
His career saw many different roles. With championship Heat teams, Haslem was an above-average role player that could come in and do everything that LeBron James and Dwayne Wade needed him to do.
Udonis Haslem's long NBA career
Haslem will go down as the definition of a professional. Whether that be on or off the court, he always played his role and did it well.
Udonis Haslem realizes that. He expressed gratitude to his family and his hometown fans for their support throughout his long career.
“Whether I was starting, whether I was the first guy off the bench or whether I didn’t play at all, you guys always had my back and showed love,” Haslem said. “For me, that’s priceless. That’s beautiful. And that’s why it made it all so easy just to sacrifice everything.”
Most Miami fans will miss what he did for them on a day-to-day basis. Whether that was helping them win championships ten years ago or being the veteran the team needed in the locker room, Haslem always made a positive impact.
Luckily for Heat fans, it doesn't seem out of the question that Haslem will still be involved. According to Erik Spoelstra, Haslem won't be leaving anytime soon. The longtime veteran is expected to stay with the organization from the sound of things:
"Short answer is I'm going to miss him," Spoelstra said. "But he's not going anywhere, it's just going to be a different role. And I think he'll find a way to make this role even more impactful than what he's done now. He's already done that five or six times over the course of his career, it will be a reinvention and he'll find a way to move the needle."
Udonis Haslem will go down with one of the most impressive careers in NBA history. Maybe not by the numbers, but what he did for Miami was irreplaceable.
