‘I’m done… no matter what’: Miami Heat stalwart, three-time NBA champion and league’s OLDEST player Udonis Haslem announces retirement at age 42
Veteran forward and Miami Heat team captain Udonis Haslem has revealed that he plans to retire at the end of the season.
Haslem, 42, spent his entire NBA career with the Miami Heat after first joining the team in 2003 and winning three championships, in 2006, 2012 and 2013.
“I’m done,” Haslem told the Miami Herald. I’m done, come what may. I gave my contribution. I think at this stage, there needs to be another voice for these guys. It’s time for someone to step up and be the voice.’
Haslem has a career average of 7.5 points and 6.6 rebounds. The highest scoring season of his career saw him average 12 points per game along with nine rebounds during the 2007-2008 season.
Haslem is currently the oldest player in the NBA, having only appeared in six games this season.
Miami Heat captain Udonis Haslem will retire at the end of the 2022-2023 NBA season
Haslem is currently the oldest player in the NBA, having only appeared in six games this year.
The Miami organization has been planning a spectacular sendoff for the Miami native ahead of his final home game of the regular season.
The Heat announced on Sunday, Day 305 at 3:05 pm, a celebration to be known as ‘4 Days of 40,’ which will celebrate Haslam’s career.
‘Obviously, there is an enormous amount of love and respect in this organization for Udonis. The marketing department, we absolutely love Udonis. He’s been great to us in his 20 years here,’ said Heat executive vice president and chief marketing officer Michael McCullough.
“We’ve been trying to do everything we can to think about how we can properly thank him and recognize what he meant to this organization.”
The ‘4 Days of 40’ will start on March 23 and it is a series of digital content dedicated to Haslam.
It will continue on the 24th when Court Culture premieres ‘La Colección UD’. This will include four new Haslem jerseys, which will be available for purchase at all Miami Heat Store locations, as well as MiamiHeatStore.com.
The Heat will then host ‘UD Night’ during their game against the Brooklyn Nets on March 25, when a new ‘Section 305’ dedicated to honoring Haslem will be unveiled at Miami-Dade Arena.
Finally, on March 23, the Miami Heat Family Festival will feature Haslem-themed activations and experiences.
He has won three NBA Finals in his career, though he lost the 2020 Finals to former teammate LeBron James and the Los Angles Lakers in the NBA bubble.
“These four days are really more like if this is a backyard barbecue or a house party and you’re sitting around and trading Udonis stories, that’s the tone of these four days,” McCullough said.
Haslem himself said that he is “grateful and appreciative” after calling the four-day celebration an “incredible gesture”, but also stated that his main goal is to lead the team to the playoffs.
“I’m just trying to make the playoffs,” Haslem told the Miami Herald. ‘It’s one thing at a time, man. I can only focus on one thing at a time. So the focus is trying to make the playoffs right now.”
The Heat are currently 34-31 and rank seventh in the NBA Eastern Conference. At the moment, they are two games behind the Brooklyn Nets for the last guaranteed playoff spot in the conference to avoid the play-in tournament.