A welcome addition
Whiteside rejoins Heat in Memphis after birth of son
Hassan Whiteside is expected to return for
MEMPHIS Hassan Whiteside has returned to the Miami Heat in Memphis as a father.
And we now know the name of the 7-foot center’s son: Jayden Legend Whiteside.
“I’m really interested in seeing him grow up, and I’m excited,” said Hassan Whiteside, who comes back from a four-game absence.
After the birth of his first child, he rejoined the team for a Thursday night practice at the FedEx Forum practice court ahead of the Heat’s Friday night game with the Grizzlies with renewed energy.
“He’s got a great smile, as he should,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said of Whiteside’s demeanor on Thursday. “He’s back here to work. He has wanted to be back with the guys.”
As one could expect for a baby produced by an NBA center, it was a big one. Twenty-three inches and eight and a half pounds.
“His hands are huge,” Whiteside said. “It’s just surreal.”
They sound like hands made for blocking shots, so the question had to be asked: Does young Jayden Legend have a future in the league?
“If he wants,” Whiteside said. “Whatever he wants to do, I’m going to support. If he wants to be a basketball player, I’m going to definitely give him the blueprint that I done had.”
Whiteside has people in his corner that can help through the early challenges of fatherhood. Who better than Dwyane Wade?
“It’s going to be challenging. It’s a great experience that you have. It’s no love like it,” said Wade, who has three sons of his own – the oldest, Zaire, being a junior in high school at American Heritage in Plantation, and the youngest a daughter recently introduced to the world with wife Gabrielle Union as Kaavia James.
“You learn a lot about yourself when you have to raise a child. You learn more about yourself than you ever knew. I look forward to just asking him ‘How’s it going?’ and just hearing the stories of him having to figure out how to become the parent that he wants to become.
“You see responsibility, and you know when your kid looks up at you, you just want to do as much as you can to give him the life that you feel they deserve.”
It’s not just teammates on the Heat that can assist Whiteside with his new role as a father.
“I always talk to [Portland Trail Blazers guard] Damian Lillard,” Whitside said. “He’s in love with his son. I talk to a lot of guys, even guys that’s not on the Heat.”
Wade, who missed seven games earlier this season on paternity leave, playfully interrupted Whiteside’s interview during Thursday’s practice, pretending to cry begging him for food.
Luckily for Whiteside, that’s actually nothing like he sees from Jayden Legend.
“He don’t cry a lot,” Whiteside said. “He’s not a big crier. Pretty chill, mellow kid.”
With the Heat winning their first two on the season-long six-game road trip and then dropping outcomes against the Los Angeles Lakers and Utah Jazz, now the focus is to come out of the stretch either even or improving their record.
“We wanted to get Hassan back incorporated with the group and just get in here and sweat, move on from [Wednesday] and move on to [Friday],” Spoelstra said practice.
Whiteside, who worked on conditioning Tuesday and Wednesday in Miami with player development coach Anthony Carter, felt he could’ve helped in the two losses.
“Especially at Utah – because I played [well] against Utah – and that Lakers game, I definitely feel like I could’ve helped,” Whiteside said. “I hadn’t played against the Clippers or Phoenix, so I can’t really speak about them too much.”
The second-to-last game before Whiteside began his leave, against the Jazz, he posted 23 points, 20 rebounds and three blocks in a 102-100 win.
Two nights later, his last with the team before staying back to start the road trip, he walked off the bench and into the locker room in the final minute of a 105-90 loss to the Orlando Magic in a game where he did not play in the fourth quarter. Whiteside would say at practice the next day he merely had to use the restroom, although Spoelstra called the act “unacceptable behavior” that the team handled internally. of Thursday’s