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Former Florida Gator and current Miami Heat forward Udonis Haslem recounts his final moments of the 2013 NBA Game 6 playoff game against the San Antonio Spurs on the Golic and Wingo show on Wednesday morning.
The thriller will re-air on ESPN at 7 p.m. EST on Wednesday.
Haslem also discussed his perspective on the progression of the coronavirus in Miami.
Haslem recounts last moments from the 2013 NBA Finals Game 6
The 2013 Miami Heat had the treasured Big Three in Chris Bosh, Dwayne Wade and LeBron James. One might say the team was destined for greatness.
The Heat, the reigning 2012 NBA Champions, were coming off a 66-16 regular season. They had just won 12 out of 16 conference playoff games with a close Conference Finals series with the Pacers.
Heading into Game 6, Miami trailed the Spurs by two wins compared to the Spurs’ three. Miami had a home-court advantage, and they needed a win to stay in the series.
With less than a minute left on the game clock, Haslem said on the Golic and Wingo show that he remembered sitting on the Miami bench and being down by six.
“It just can’t end like this,” he thought. At just under a minute left, the score was 91-89 with the Spurs on top. With 28 seconds remaining, Miami had dropped behind by five points with the score at 94-89. After James missed a three-pointer with seven seconds left, Bosh rebounded the ball and passed it to Allen. Then, Allen made a 25-foot three-point jumper, tying it up 95-95 to take the game into overtime.
Haslem said he had the perfect vantage point to see Allen’s shot go in.
Here’s the shot:
https://twitter.com/espn/status/1247871909108293632
Haslem comments on the coronavirus in Miami
Haslem, a Miami native, explained on the Golic and Wingo show why the east side of the Miami area faces unique challenges with the coronavirus:
In addition to the city’s challenges, the 17-season Miami Heat veteran said people originally weren’t taking the virus seriously enough and that Miami has two different realities:
Since Miami started to better enforce social distancing and added regulations, Haslem said that people started to take it more seriously. He seems positive about the rest of the NBA season and the fight of the coronavirus:
“It’s definitely gotten better. You know, I definitely commend the city of Miami, the commissioners, the mayors and everybody involved, police stations and everybody involved with the coaches and just kind of getting things in order and just kind of surrounding the cattle and just kind of holding it down a little bit because it was a little crazy, but South Beach is looking great right now, they are shutting it down, the streets are empty pretty much where I am in…North Miami, and everything a little bit further north is shut down, so everything is under control right now and—fingers crossed, I am going to remain optimistic about the NBA season.”
To see more what Downtown Miami looks like right now, check out the tweet below for an aerial video of Downtown Miami during the coronavirus lockdown.
https://twitter.com/kr3at/status/1247230414642728969
As shown in the video, the streets, waterways, beaches, resorts, hotels and malls all appear quite empty. Miami-Dade County closed all beaches in Miami in mid-March.
