Heat Legend Udonis Haslem Honors Departed “Guardian Angel” With New Avatar for Christmas Mission

The Christmas festivities have been ongoing for weeks now. NBA stars and veterans do their bit for society during this time of the year. With the big day only 2 days away, Udonis Haslem took over the role of Santa and made the festival special for several kids. More importantly, Haslem is doing it to honor his guardian angel.

Continuing his tradition, Haslem took several kids on a shopping spree. The Miami Heat veteran has had this tradition going on for 15 years now. The 15th annual B Wootie holiday shopping program was a hit among the kids going by their reaction.

Udonis Haslem honors his guardian angel

Haslem recently lost Barbara Wooten, the woman he considered his guardian angel. The NBA veteran grew up without parents, who were suffering from addiction. At that time, Wooten took the responsibility upon herself to look after him and was his major support system throughout his NBA career. Now, Haslem is retired but he hasn’t forgotten the good deeds of Wooten. The 43-year-old has always been someone who likes to give back to society, especially with his foundation, the Udonis Haslem Foundation. So Christmas is a perfect time for him to continue doing the good work.

Haslem took a bus full of kids to a shopping spree where they had the freedom to choose whatever gifts they wanted for Christmas. The NBA veteran shared several snippets from his day out with the kids. Haslem’s Foundation shared some clips from the scenes as well. The kids, with wide smiles on their faces, said thank you to Haslem and his foundation. The 3x NBA champion was also seen interacting with the kids and handing out cards to them.

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This Christmas season Haslem has also received a gift which is well deserved for his stature. After playing for almost 20 years for the Heat franchise, it was recently announced that his jersey will be retired by the franchise. This is an incredible honor to be given to one of the pioneers of the Heat culture. Haslem is among those individuals whose accomplishments and contributions can not be measured by statistics.

Every athlete who has been a part of the Heat franchise holds him in the highest regard. After the recent announcement, a lot of fans also shared their excitement over the news as they know how much he has contributed to building the Miami franchise as we know it today.

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