Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Bosh says Haslem was 2012 playoff stalwart
MIAMI — His Miami Heat future in limbo as he remains away from the team, forward Chris Bosh said Monday night in his role as a studio analyst on TNT that he will remain indebted to one teammate in particular.
In the second of his five Monday “Players Only” appearances, Bosh singled out forward Udonis Haslem for allowing him to be part of the Heat’s 2012 championship team, revealing just how dire his injury situation was that postseason.
“As far as being with someone who you want on your team 100 percent, all day, every day, I’ve got to go with my man Udonis Haslem,” Bosh said, as he remains away from the Heat after failing his preseason physical, in the wake of season-ending blood-clotting episodes in each of the previous two seasons. “And the only story I have — it ain’t funny or nothing — is just at a really dire time in my career, with my team.”
Bosh then reflected on the Heat’s 2012 playoff series against the Indiana Pacers, saying the Heat actually had downplayed the degree of his injury.
“I tore my groin,” he said. “We said it was an ab strain, but I tore it, actually. So I was out three weeks. You got to do what you got to do.
“So when I went to the doctor, I go to the doctor, and they tell me, ‘Best case scenario, you can play in three weeks.’ And that’s all I needed to hear. I walked out. If I would have gotten surgery, I would have been out for the season, and we’re trying to win a championship.”
The Heat then cycled through a series of post players until Bosh was able to return in the Eastern Conference finals against the Boston Celtics, winning the first of their two championships that season with their Big Three of Bosh, LeBron James and Dwyane Wade.
“That whole time, U.D. was the guy who held it down,” Bosh said. “He started for us. We had to play Indiana [and Boston]. I think he played about nine games, nine playoff games, held it down at that position. And he was one of the dudes who kept my mind in it, too.”
Erik Spoelstra
Arena.
“I notice his commitment every single day to the process, to the player development, to the conditioning, to working within the system,” Spoelstra said. “When you start to stack day after day, week after week, month after month, eventually you will start to see the results you want.
“You can’t cram for a test. Not in this league. It’s about those habits that you are building every day, and he is building much better habits. Now the next day he has to come in and work even harder.”