Throughout the last month, former Miami Heat forward and team captain Udonis Haslem has appeared across ESPN programming and provided his opinion on various topics. Haslem was in studio for Tuesday’s edition of First Take with host Molly Qerim and commentators Shannon Sharpe and Kendrick Perkins where the show discussed the NBA Playoffs, including the Boston Celtics making the NBA Finals for the second time in three years.
Haslem officially retired from the NBA last summer and had his jersey retired by the Miami Heat. He is the host of The OGs Show alongside former Heat teammate Mike Miller and has also been on ESPN since retiring, the latter of which is a surprise to Dan Le Batard. In fact, he asked if anyone in the studio felt similarly about Haslem during Tuesday’s edition of The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz. The question elicited a collective response of “No” from everyone within the Shipping Container.
Jon “Stugotz” Weiner, however, dissented from that viewpoint and agrees with Le Batard that it is surprising Haslem is at ESPN. Le Batard then explained that he was, in reality, astonished that Haslem was doing things in sports media to begin with.
“I shouldn’t be surprised that he’s good at it,” Le Batard explained, “but I’m surprised that he’s doing any of it, and he said the other day in terms of getting geared up for the take. He’s like, ‘LeBron’s not going anywhere. He’s not leaving Los Angeles under any circumstances.’”
Haslem joined the Heat front office last season as the team’s vice president of basketball development, a conflict of interest that producer Chris Cote made mention of during the show on Tuesday. A few weeks ago while appearing on NBA Today, Haslem expressed that Bam Adebayo and Tyler Herro would progress next season; however, he qualified the remark on Herro to do that as a sixth man. Cote conjectured that Heat team president Pat Riley was not happy with Haslem’s remarks, an opinion that producer Mike Ryan countered.
“You believe that?,” Ryan said. “Yeah, no. UD showed up to TV with a mission in mind that day to make it ugly. Yeah, two weeks later, Tyler Herro’s listing his house. That’s how that one goes.”
Ryan later suggested that one might think that Haslem is acting as a rogue agent, leading Cote to question why Riley had to later come out and defend Herro by stating that he is worthy of a starting role in the NBA. Show producer Jeremy Taché then expressed that he had several questions pertaining to who is supposed to be planting stories in certain places.
“Finally, a Heat voice, I guess, in national media on ESPN,” Taché said, “but he’s there to try to tear down a player who’s value the Heat would want higher if they were trying to trade him, so I’m just sort of a little confused about the thread.”
“He got UD to make it ugly,” Ryan replied. “Ordered the code red.”
Weiner entered the discussion by stating that Haslem did not execute his role on First Take correctly. He asserted that Haslem needs to have a take rather than simply saying that LeBron James is going to stay on the Los Angeles Lakers. In fact, he encouraged him to make something up on the morning debate show in that circumstance.
After explaining the situation and perception that the Lakers are trying to keep James next season, Le Batard wanted Weiner to come up with a better take that he would present on the show. “‘He’s going anywhere but LA,’” Weiner said. “That’s the take.” Le Batard surmised this to be an uninformed opinion, but Weiner clarified his statement by explaining that it was a guess.
