Udonis Haslem Has Florida On HIs Back, And Miami Loves Him For It

This article is part of VICE Sports' 2016 NBA Playoffs coverage.

Forget whatever you've heard about the cocaine-fueled, poseur-strewn nightmare of Miami Beach's Ocean Drive; Southwest 8th Street is truly the most famous roadway in South Florida. That's the tourist's pronunciation; natives have long referred to it by it's proper name of Calle Ocho. The sprawling asphalt channel connects the Everglades to downtown Miami and is littered with empty dime bags, juice bars, and motels that charge by the hour. Every politician with designs on a bigger throne stops to taste the local culture, which is to say either argue foreign policy over a Cuban sandwich or get busted in an elaborate criminal sting.

Calle Ocho has changed some in recent years; it's a little less gritty and a little more tourist-friendly, but it is most itself in Little Havana, Miami's Cuban capital. That neighborhood has changed, too, but men in loose guayaberas still laugh through games of dominos in domino park amid the pungent and oddly complementary smells of just-lit cigars and guava-filled pastries frying in the cafe next door.

Among the stories you'll hear there are memories of la charada, the name for Cuba's clandestine lottery system. Words were matched to a corresponding number, which let people gamble secretly in plain sight. There was also an element of mysticism involved; we rarely dream of digits but animals, things, people—these things show up, and could be seen by someone straining to see them as such as messages bringing fortune from beyond.

For instance, the number "1" means "horse", the number "2" stands for "butterfly." The number 40, coincidentally the one worn by Miami Heat forward Udonis Haslem throughout his 13-year career, is sangre. It stands for "blood."

There are numbers that describe Haslem less obscurely than that. The three championships of which he's been a part, say, or the 5,600-plus rebounds he's accumulated, enough to lead the only NBA franchise he's played for; he's the only undrafted player to lead a team in rebounding in NBA history. He ranks in the top-five in Heat history in games started and played, as well as total minutes and made field goals. For a man once considered too fat and too unskilled to join the league, Haslem has done very well for himself, something he understands well.

"It's amazing to think about where my career has taken me. If you would have told me this 15 years ago, I would never have believed it," Haslem told VICE in mid-April. "So much success and health, and a tremendous opportunity that could've gone a different way, you know?" Haslem stood shirtless in front of his locker room stall, the State of Florida mapped out in dark ink across his back. That tattoo is part of his legend, too. If "legend" seems a bit hyperbolic in terms of a description of a role player that no longer has much of a role, then you're probably not from Miami.

It's tough to convey how revered Haslem is throughout South Florida. Part of it is his unlikely journey to the NBA. After a successful stint at the University of Florida, he went undrafted but decided that playing overseas was his best option. He journeyed to France at nearly 300 pounds but found local cuisine so unpalatable that he cut down to just one meal a day. He returned to the U.S. a year later, considerably lighter and leaner and once again looking for work.

In 2003, the Heat were in the midst of a short-lived rebuild. Pat Riley had abandoned the sidelines to protege Stan Van Gundy, who was expected to lead a group of talented but unproven players. There was promise up and down the roster: Lamar Odom had been signed away from the Clippers earlier that summer, second-year player Caron Butler was emerging, and the team thought highly of lottery pick Dwyane Wade. But what they possessed in talent, they lacked in rebounding and defensive tenacity. Haslem provided that, with all the hunger that would be expected from someone playing for his NBA life.

Longtime Heat fans remember that season as something special, in part because of how much a team that wasn't supposed to accomplish anything managed to accomplish; they snuck into the postseason, and gave the league its first glance of Wade's playoff brilliance. There's some undeniable luck in Haslem joining this particular team at this particular moment, and that his career has been linked from Day 1 to Wade's is undoubtedly fortuitous. But also the credit belongs almost entirely to him: for seeing a moment and seizing it, and for fighting to ensure that he found a way to contribute.

"Since I've been here I've been a starter, been a sixth man, not really being in the rotation, having to come in during the playoffs—sometimes after being hurt the whole season—I've figured out how to embrace every opportunity," Haslem explained.

It's that dependability that's also endeared Haslem to his fellow Miamians, a comfort in knowing that he will always be there to do whatever he can. When Wade and Shaquille O'Neal were leading the Heat to their first title in 2006, a distinctively-cornrowed Haslem did the dirty work right alongside them. When Wade was joined by LeBron James and Chris Bosh in 2010, Haslem was again grinding mouthpieces to dust under the brightest of spotlights. All along, he's provided a toughness to the team that goes beyond rebounds and defense; he's always been willing to fight for his teammates, although he's seldom had to. If there are fake tough guys across the league, then the opposite end of that spectrum—the dudes you simply do not ever want to fuck with—includes Haslem as a lifetime member.

He's also sacrificed millions over the course of his tenure in Miami, taking less money than other teams were offering him not once but twice, and opting out of a more lucrative deal to give the team more flexibility in free agency. His acknowledgment of this selflessness is boilerplate—"the guys upstairs do a great job of bringing the proper pieces to help us win basketball games"—but it fits. He never concedes the role he's played in making all that success possible, but he'll have proof of it when he retires, when the team hangs his number 40 in the rafters.

For Haslem, that day may be coming soon.

Much of Miami's success this year and beyond is built on the younger members of the roster, Hassan Whiteside, Justise Winslow, and Josh Richardson among them. Whiteside, a supremely talented seven-footer who picked up a reputation as a hothead during this brief NBA career, has become a project of sorts for Haslem, who has quietly taken him under his wing. When Whiteside avoided a confrontation late this season, Haslem told reporters how "proud of him" he was and how "he's progressed" in dealing with that type of agitation.

Winslow and Richardson, both rookies, signify Miami's bright future but Haslem is confident that they'll both keep growing. "They continue to surprise me," he says. "Both of them [are] playing different positions than they played in college. So for both of those guys to figure out different positions, different roles, and maximize that opportunity of being in those roles … I'm just happy to see those guys continue to build on the things we've instilled early on in the season."

Miami's season and Haslem's career fought forward again on Sunday in a Game 7 win against the Charlotte Hornets in the first round of the NBA Playoffs. The Heat won comfortably, and while Haslem didn't make an appearance, he had already made an impact. He explained to reporters after the Game 7 win that he'd given his teammates the pep talk of his career before the team's must-win Game 6:

"I told the guys coming into this game, if we lose, we're not walking out," Haslem said. "We're going out on stretchers and in wheelchairs. That's how the game is gonna have to be won. Loose balls? Head first. Charge? Take it. Whatever needs to be done."

It's clichéd, but most pep talks are. More memorably, Haslem walked the walk in earnest in Game 6—getting a crucial rebound, keeping Al Jefferson from doing his thing in the low post, taking a vital charge to force a Hornets turnover late in the fourth quarter. Wade's clutch scoring won the headlines following Miami's victory, but he wouldn't even get the chance to shine if not for Haslem's work.

When the season ends Haslem will be a free agent, again. Accepting a one-year deal would provide Riley and the Heat front office the flexibility to re-sign Wade and Whiteside, and get in the running for Kevin Durant. On what would be another star-studded team, Haslem's playing time would be diminished further, to the point where he might consider throwing away his mouthpiece for the last time. Haslem doesn't talk about retirement, and is not the type of player or person to give a timetable for when that might happen.

But he seems prepared for the end, whenever it comes. When asked if he considers his fortune in playing for his hometown team, Haslem paused "I would have never thought," he said, trailing off. "I know I'm blessed, and I'm thankful. I'm always careful what I complain about. Because things could always be worse." Things appear to be getting better in Miami, and it is nice to think that Haslem could stick around to see it. Everything will be different, and worse in a way that's hard to name, when the team's heart is no longer beating on the sideline.