CHICAGO — Over the upcoming week, Mr. 305 deservedly will be honored for 20 seasons of service to team and community by the Miami Heat.
Born and raised in the hardscrabble inner-city of Miami, few players, in any sport, are as identified with their hometown than Udonis Haslem.
And yet, for these past two decades, Mr. 305 has actually been Mr. 954, living first in Davie upon his Heat arrival and now in the semi-rural setting of Southwest Ranches.
By no means has that meant turning his back on his roots, just as often found in Miami-Dade with his philanthropic and entrepreneurial endeavors.
Just a husband and father, like many husbands and fathers, seeking the better life for his family that he only could imagine growing up.
To Haslem, Broward is the oasis, while Miami-Dade remains the pride.
The tranquility of the suburbs, he said, allows the passion to flourish both in the locker room and in the community when he crosses the county line.
“I always wanted land,” the Heat’s 42-year-old captain said recently by his locker at Miami-Dade Arena. “There’s not very much land in Miami. You might get a half an acre, an acre lot. But I needed like four acres, and I knew where I could find that.
“I wanted my own peace and my own little compound. And when I leave from everything that I’ve got to deal with, I can go there and recharge and do whatever I need to do and get ready for the next day.”
And, yes, like the rest of South Florida’s commuters, there is a tradeoff — the traffic tradeoff.
The timing of many Heat practices and shootarounds means morning rush hour.
“You got to ask my drivers,” Haslem said with a laugh when asked about the a.m. chaos. “I’m on my fourth one. The fact that I’m on the fourth one, it probably tells you how it’s been like for them.
“Actually, I find it therapeutic. It’s one of the few times I get peace and quiet. I get to control my own time. For the part at my home, my time belongs to my wife and my kids. When I’m here in the arena, my time belongs to the Heat and the team. So the drive is my time. Sometimes I listen to the Isley Brothers, which was my father’s favorite group.”
What Haslem won’t allow to be lost in the commute is what the 305 means to him and how that passion has to resonate even while raising his family in a different setting.
“I’m very careful of that, that they’re privileged, that this is not reality,” he said of his Southwest Ranches compound. “And I make sure I take them with me when I go to do charity things, so they can see the other side, and what life is like for some people and not just us.”
But, he said, there is no questioning that he also is a somewhat of a reformed Dade dad.
“They like to make a joke when I get a little fired up,” he said of his three sons. “They like to say that Dade County dad comes out, as opposed to the dad they have now. So they understand the more rough, rugged side of things from where I’m from, the actual inner city of Miami.”
With Liberty City continuing to resonate.
“I take them to my grandmother’s house, where we always spent so much time as kids growing up,” he said. “Unfortunately, my grandma’s house burned down in a fire, so I was glad to get a chance for them to see that in Liberty City. It was a year ago, her house caught electrical fire.
“So they’ve seen where I came from, where it all started and what life was like. And they also understand why I work so hard to provide them with the things they have, a better life. And I think I have good kids that are thankful. They are not ungrateful.”
