Udonis Haslem recently chose to return for his 16th season in the NBA, signing a one-year deal for the veteran's minimum with the Miami Heat — but he won't press his draftmate and longtime friend Dwyane Wade to do the same.
“Yeah, I definitely can appreciate what's he's going through,” said Haslem, according to Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun Sentinel. “That's my brother. As a brother, you look at it from a different lens. Selfishly I would love for him to come back and play another year with me.
“But as his brother, looking at it from another lens, I understand what's important to life right now, at this stage of our life — our kids, our families, those are the most important things. And we don't get the time back that we lost. And as he goes through his process with his son and I'm like excited about it like it's my son, because I went through it with my son [Kedonis, a Toledo football player]. So I understand where he's with it.”
Some think that Wade is toeing the line with hopes of garnering more attention to make the Heat pay up a little more, but Wade recently said he's yet to deal with the contractual part of negotiations, as he is without an answer at the moment.
Haslem's return was viewed as a potential asset to bring the band back, hoping Wade would finish his career playing alongside his career-long friend, but Haslem won't press the 36-year-old into make a return.
“I mean, if he asks me if I want him back, I'm going to say, ‘Yeah.' But am I going to put pressure on him to come back? No, I'll never put pressure on him to come back,” said Haslem. “At the end of the day, our relationship actually grew and strengthened when he went to Chicago. That's not to say he goes somewhere else. That's just to say we really, really bonded more. But this relationship will last forever no matter where Dwyane is or how many years he plays.”
The Heat currently have only one roster spot available before reaching the max of 20 — saving that last opening for their franchise guy, in case he decides to give it one last go in a Miami uniform.
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