Udonis Haslem Quotations

I've learned a lot from the experiences that I went through in high school, through college and overseas, and just everything in life. That is what prepared me for coming into the NBA, being undersized, no recognition, not getting anything easy, and I have been fortunate to prosper in this league.

My work ethic I learned at Miami High, and I have taken that with me.

The Heat gave me an opportunity when nobody else wanted to.

Anytime you have a Pat Riley running things, calling the shots, you are not going to question things because he has been through it. He knows what it is all about and what it takes to win. All we have to do on our end is play basketball because we know the right calls and the right decisions are going to be made up top.

A lot of people look at playing overseas as a step down from the NBA. And, yes it is a step down from the NBA money-wise, but there is just as good of talent overseas as in the NBA. Not better talent.

Since I've been here, they've made great decisions. And I'm sure they'll make the right decision here.

I got excited just watching the glimpses of things to come.

I don't think it will take long. We understand what the game plan is every game going out. The transition more than anything will probably be defensively, because everybody played different defensive schemes, and our scheme is probably one of the toughest schemes in the NBA because we work a lot harder.

I don't know why we're losing. We'll get it right. We've just got to keep working.

He's a great player. The guy made shots tonight. We wanted to take away his penetration and keep him out of the paint. He was hitting his jumpers.

I agree with him 100 percent. Watching film everybody is making minor mistakes and I just think being half a step earlier, or being one step over the left or one step over to the right could change the whole outlook of the play as far as the other team getting an easy bucket or a wide open look.

He is always going to ask for more; usually he's right. We have a lot of areas to improve in. Defense is where our problems are.

He mentioned one thing, one time and we went out and responded. He didn't have to keep telling us and drilling us like little kids. He made one statement about it this morning in the walk-through and we came out and took care of business and that's the sign of a good team, coming out and making adjustments.

J-Will is always running. We just have to run with him. Sometimes we just can't keep up. ... If we can run with him, he's going to find you.

I will never forget that Game 7 as long as I play the game of basketball.

It is one of those situations where I have to step up and stick on the shooter and let the guard take his chances down there. I am thinking a step ahead. I am thinking if somebody rotates, then I have to rotate.

It is a game I'll never forget as long as I play the game of basketball. Obviously it's always in the back of our mind, how close we were last year.

I threw my mouthpiece at the ground. Looking at it on TV, I could see how Joey would think I was throwing it at him.

I think we understand what we're going up against when we go on the road. When we go on the road, it takes two times the concentration, two times more effort to win.

We came out and took care of business and that's the sign of a good team, coming out and making adjustments.

I would never approach an official in a physical manner or throw anything at them. I could see how it looked that way.

We can beat anybody. We just haven't been doing it.

We haven't been beating top-10 teams. We felt kind of desperate to get a win. We can beat anybody; we just haven't been doing it.

We didn't deserve to win that game. If we would have won that game, it would have defied the laws of basketball.

We're two different players and we can bring two different things to the table. If we put that together, we should have a pretty good tandem.

We wanted to take away his penetration and keep him out of the paint, and he hit his jumper.

There's not a time we're in that building that we're not doing some type of conditioning. We never really have a day off.

I'm usually taking my charges on somebody driving to the basket out of control and their momentum is coming toward me. Whereas the Big Guy is just taking one step back and guys are falling. He doesn't really even have enough momentum to charge those guys.

I never heard the music he was playing in my life, and I've never seen the dances he was doing in my life. It was definitely nothing of this decade. It was definitely nothing that anybody of this era would know about.

I'm happy we won. I felt really bad to sit in the locker room and not be out there to help my team. I want to apologize to them, the organization and the fans.

I just went out and played ball tonight. I took advantage of my opportunities.

Instead of saying, 'This guy is supposed to rotate here and this guy is supposed to rotate there,' if you see it, just pull the trigger and cover for that guy, and somebody has to cover for you. That's all out of reaction and you don't have to think about it.

If you look at the better teams in the league when they get a team down they finish out the game. That's kind of what separates us from those teams right now is playing 48-minute games.

If you're not making shots and you're not playing defense, you get a score like we got.

I'm definitely not packing seven suits. We obviously have a job to do. There's not too many jobs where people can play and make the money we make. You just focus on getting your rest, bundle up for different climates, eat right and deal with all the different time zones and everything else.

Anytime you start out slow like that it's a concern. You don't want to have the reputation of being a slow-starting team because you're not always going to be able to come back. We've been fortunate we've come back and won, but it could easily have gone the other way.

It's very important to execute down the stretch and get the stops, but by the same token, we want to put the games away a little earlier.

He's the most dominant player in the game,

He's the most dominant player in the game. If you don't have him it definitely hurts you. At the same time, the other guys have the opportunity to step up.

It's kind of like fool's gold. We're definitely making plays at the end of games to win, but at the same time we don't want to have to rely on that going into Detroit or with the playoffs coming up.

They have a new coach. We have a new team.

It's a tremendous loss. No matter how much time he gets or what the situation is, he's one of the guys you could count on every night to give us everything he has.

We just kept pounding it and pounding it inside. We took advantage of their size and took it to the basket. Everything was just clicking.

They pretty much had us dead in the water.

I don't want to get over on anybody. If they pay me, I want to be worth it.