Pat Beverley had Udonis Haslem on his podcast to talk about how good veterans are worth billions for their teams. UD is a shining example of that. Three championships weren’t all that made him the pillar of Heat Culture. Haslem has more than once, without hesitating, taken a backseat for his teammates. Towards the end of his career, outsiders felt Haslem was not worth $2.9 million to sit on the bench in 2023. Anyone within the Miami Heat organization would disagree. The OG has made a considerable sacrifice that brought another two championships to the Miami Heat.

That is, of course, when Haslem took a huge pay cut to not only retain Dwyane Wade in 2010 but also draw LeBron James and Chris Bosh. This Big 3 + UD won the Heat back-to-back championships. Beverley asked Haslem what was the first conversation with Bron like after that move. Beverley was expecting James to have laid some ground rules. It turned out that Haslem was the one who set the agenda.

“When Bron came to town, I let him know straight up, ‘man, first and foremost, you boys took a pay cut for me, I’m going to make sure y’all get your money worth,’” Haslem recalled, via The Pat Bev Podcast with Rone. He phrased it funny, but it’s one of the many reasons why we love UD.

It was a hot free agency market in 2010 when the Miami-born-and-bred star turned down $33 million from other teams to stay where he was. Heat gave him a $20 million contract with enough cap space to keep Wade too. D-Wade was keen on teaming up with Bosh and James. This brought both along with Mike Miller to Miami and Haslem became revered as one of the greatest figureheads of Heat Culture.

Over the years, Haslem earned a collective $20 million, recouping more than the sacrifice he made. But, his playing minutes have been diminished at least since 2021. In 2023, the media kind of made a big deal of Haslem getting a paycheck for not playing yet the coaching staff and players within the Heat would claim Haslem’s mentorship and locker room presence as invaluable.

Funnily, UD gave another teammate a hard time in this situation.

UD’s worth doesn’t go unnoticed

There’s a theory that the Heat would’ve been able to pay Haslem his worth had they not signed Mike Miller. These days both talk about those days on The OGs but once, Haslem (playfully) cussed Miller out for nearly getting him off the team.

“I mean when the Big 3 came, you know,” UD said on the podcast’s premiere. “You [Miller] took some of my money, mother***. They had no money for me, so they paid your a**. That’s what happened. I was about to get the f**k out of here. Everybody knew that.”

But as it turned out, even James, Wade, and Bosh negotiated pay cuts so Haslem could get $20 million and stay. Haslem said many times they didn’t have to but because they saw so much value in him, UD wanted to stay. Thank god history went down that way. Can’t have the three Heat championships without #40.

Stay tuned for more such updates and join us for the exciting second episode of the “Dual Threat Show” as our host BG12 sits down with Georgia Bulldogs star and Mountain West All-Freshman Team Selection, Asia Avinger.