Udonis Haslem: the Miami Heat’s doyen of grit and keeper of the flame

The Miami lifer and Methuselah of the NBA finals, who turns 43 on Friday, has done more to define the Heat’s unimpeachable team culture over two decades than any other figure

There were 29.8 seconds left in Game 3 of the NBA finals when Udonis Haslem made the creaky walk from the Miami Heat bench to the scorer’s table on Wednesday night. By then the Denver Nuggets’ 109-94 victory was well in hand, and many of the Heat faithful had long since made for the exits.

For his part, though, Haslem at least could say he got a shot up, and missed, before ducking into the locker room – the most action he’d seen since the playoffs tipped off a month and a half ago. The only highlight in that garbage-time effort was Haslem blowing past Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to become the oldest to participate in the NBA finals at 42 years and 363 days. And with Heat legend’s retirement looming after the buzzer sounds on this series, well, he damn sure isn’t about to go out like that.

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