Reliving Udonis Haslem’s memorable season debut: ‘That was my favorite moment of the season’

If Thursday’s appearance marked the final one in Udonis Haslem’s long and productive NBA career, it would be a fitting ending.

Haslem, the Heat’s team captain and veteran forward, waited until the 70th game to make his season debut. He played just three minutes in Thursday’s win over the Philadelphia 76ers, but those three minutes were filled with trademark Haslem moments.

Takeaways from Heat’s dominant win over top-seeded 76ers on what became Udonis Haslem night

He scored twice, one coming on a baseline jumper.

He stepped in to take a charge.

He was ejected after a heated exchange with 76ers center Dwight Howard.

Then, just like that, it was over.

“It was a great memory,” Haslem said, with the Heat traveling Friday to play its second-to-final game of the regular season on Saturday night against the Milwaukee Bucks with Miami still jockeying for playoff positioning as the fifth-place team in the Eastern Conference. “If this is the last one, I finished it the only way Udonis Haslem could, with an ejection.”

Haslem, who has now officially played in 18 NBA seasons after making his season debut Thursday, was ejected with 10:19 left in the second quarter — just 2:40 after entering the game to a standing ovation from the AmericanAirlines Arena crowd late in the first quarter.

Haslem finished with four points, one rebound, a drawn charge and two technicals.

“The only thing I was waiting for was for him to take his mouth piece out and throw it at [now-retired NBA official] Joey Crawford,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said with a laugh, referencing Haslem’s mouthpiece-throwing incident in the 2006 playoffs. “He just didn’t see Joey out there. Otherwise if he was in the stands, that would have been thrown at him.”

Thursday’s verbal altercation stemmed from what happened a few plays prior, when Howard threw Haslem down as they battled for rebounding positioning.

“It was just a conversation between me and him where I just wanted to make it clear that the throwing down and the swinging of the elbows and things like that, I just felt like we should kind of leave that out of the game for tonight,” Haslem said. “I think he disagreed. When he disagreed, I disagreed and it was a whole bunch of disagreeing.”

Spoelstra called Haslem’s three-minute season debut, which went viral, his “favorite moment of the season so far.”

“Just excessive passion, competitiveness and anger. I just love it and that’s why we roll with UD,” Spoelstra said. “Everybody in that locker room just has great respect and love for him. He’s all about the team, he’s all about these moments. Look, he hadn’t played this season and in meaningful minutes, he just makes things happen.”

Heat star Jimmy Butler agreed with Spoelstra, ranking Haslem’s first minutes of the season “at the top” of his list of season highlights.

“I love confrontation, altercation and all of that good stuff,” Butler said. “I feed off of it, we feed off it. I encourage it.”

Center Bam Adebayo offered a much more candid reaction.

“I was like, ‘Yo this [expletive] is crazy,” Adebayo said. “I was like, ‘UD, you can’t get tossed in the first four minutes, bro.’ How long was he in the game? Four minutes? Three. Three minutes and you get tossed. I said ‘OG, you taught me a lot, but you didn’t ever teach me to get tossed in three minutes.’”

According to ESPN Stats & Info, Haslem’s 2:40 stint is the fewest minutes played by a player who was ejected in his first game of the season over the last 10 seasons. It marked the fourth regular-season ejection of Haslem’s NBA career.

“I think it was UD getting his opportunity to just be himself,” Adebayo said. “We all know UD. When it happened, I was looking and was like ‘OK, he’s about to go off.’ Then, sure enough, boom, boom, tech, tech and he’s out of here. I had no problem with it.”

Haslem added: “At the end of the day, I am who I am. I can’t change now, you know what I mean.”

Haslem, who turns 41 on June 9, became the oldest player to appear in a game for the Heat in franchise history on Thursday. He surpassed Juwan Howard, who previously held that title after playing in a game for the Heat in 2013 at 40 years old and 69 days.

Haslem has played less of an on-court role and more of a leadership role in recent seasons, and that trend has continued. Thursday not only marked the first game that he has played in this season, but just the 29th game he has played in since the start of the 2017-18 season.

“It was fun for me to just go out there and play the game of basketball and continue to show people that I can still play at a high level and help my team win,” Haslem said. “It was fun, just the adrenaline. I appreciate the crowd and my teammates.”

The Miami native, who attended Miami High, has spent his entire NBA career with the Heat and currently holds the longest streak by any active player with only one team in the league.

Undrafted out of Florida in 2002, Haslem has played a role on each of the franchise’s three championship teams and is the Heat’s all-time leading rebounder. He’s the only undrafted player in NBA history to lead a franchise in total rebounds and he has served as a Heat captain in 14 consecutive seasons, the longest tenure in team history.

“I appreciate the love from the city,” Haslem said of entering and exiting Thursday’s game to a standing ovation from the home crowd. “I tell people all the time, regardless of what people want to say about my career, was he a great player, was he a role payer or whatever. I feel like I get a lot of criticism for a lot of different things. But the one thing that has remained loyal to me is this city. That’s why I remain loyal to this city.”

When referencing retirement on Thursday night, Haslem only spoke in hypotheticals. He’s still undecided on whether he will return for a 19th NBA season, and said earlier this month that decision will come in the offseason.

But if it’s up to Spoelstra, Haslem will be back again next season.

“It’s not like I’ve been openly recruiting him, but I just continue to tell him, ‘Hey, we don’t have to make any kind of decision now. Let’s kick this down the road,’” Spoelstra said. “Everybody knows in this building, but most importantly in that locker room, the level of impact that he has. That’s developing leaders in that locker room and helping teach and cultivate our culture. ... But it’s not him just barking that out. He’s rolling up his sleeves and developing the next wave of leaders in the Heat culture.”

PLAYOFF TICKETS

The Heat announced Friday that individual tickets for home games in the first round of the playoffs will go on sale to the general public Wednesday at 2 p.m. An Amex presale will take place from Tuesday at 5 p.m. to Wednesday at 1:59 p.m.

There will be a four-ticket limit per household per game. Fans can purchase tickets online at HEAT.com, Ticketmaster.com, and at all Ticketmaster outlets.

The Heat is expected to increase capacity at AmericanAirlines Arena for the playoffs, but that number is still being decided on. The arena is currently operating at a capacity of about 5,700 or 29 percent of its usual capacity of 19,600, with the COVID-19 pandemic forcing teams to limit attendance.

With the Heat bringing back last season’s “United in Black” campaign for the playoffs, the Heat will wear its black uniforms as often as possible during the postseason and fans are also encouraged to wear black.

The Heat will donate the proceeds from the franchise’s social justice-themed shirt collections, as well as the on-court “United in Black” player warm-up shirts, to local community organizations serving the Black community in South Florida.