NBA Udonis Haslem handshake comments
by Emeka Q Rossi: NBA
Udonis Haslem believes a leader would not shake hands with eight minutes left on the clock.
Transcript (en)
You would think that a team that has been there, they would have those habits. So the fact that they don't have those habits are very disappointing to me. Because once you get here, and I say this all the time, the playoffs has a way of revealing what's inside you. And I didn't like what I saw from some of the Minnesota Timberwolves. Ant was definitely hobbled. Devin Chinjo was out. But some of the things I saw I didn't like. And what I will say is, as great as Ant is as a basketball player, there's still some growth for him as well. Because as a leader, I would not have walked down there and shook their hand. I would not have walked in there and shook their hand with eight minutes left in the game. As a leader of my troops and my guys, I would not show that weakness. The game is not over. I got eight minutes left. I still got smoke coming out of my ear because I'm so damn mad that we losing. Let me calm down for those eight minutes since I'm not in, and then after those eight minutes, I'll go down there and I'll congratulate them and their coaching staff. But in the middle of the game, when I got guys that have sat the bench and cheered me on, no, I'm going to sit there and cheer those guys on. I'm going to put that energy back into those guys, and then when the game's over, I'll go over there and shake their hands. So that's just the way I handle things. I'm a little bit different. I'm a little bit old school. I understand there's a different generation, but I don't think if they were beating San Antonio, Wemby would have went down there and shook his hand with eight minutes left. I don't think so. I damn sure know Wemby wouldn't have went down there and shook his hand. I don't even know if that's old school. Yeah, so for me, I love Ant-Man as a basketball player. I love where he's going to be as a basketball player, but as a leader, the next few steps he needs to make are little small details and things like that because other people on your team and those guys are always watching you and they're following you whether you know it or not.
