There is no denying that this has been quite an emotionally draining NBA offseason for Tyler Herro. As many NBA fans should be aware, the young Miami Heat star found himself thrown into trade discussions after the basketball world found out that Damian Lillard wanted to be traded from the Portland Trail Blazers and join the Miami Heat.
We all know that this trade never went down as expected. Lillard ended up being traded to the Milwaukee Bucks after several weeks of trade discussions and reports. No one saw the Bucks coming and getting this deal done. As a result, the Heat are now left with a disgruntled and determined Tyler Herro.
Herro recently spoke out on some advice that he received from Udonis Haslem during all the trade talks. To those who do not know, Haslem is a former Miami Heat veteran who recently retired. Now that we have the context, let us take a closer look at the conversation between Herro and Haslem.
What did Udonis Haslem tell Tyler Herro?
There is a clear reason as to why the Heat decided to involve Herro in trade discussions. The team managed to make it all the way to the NBA Finals last season despite losing Tyler to injury in their first-round matchup against the Milwaukee Bucks.
Since the Heat could make it all the way to the NBA Finals without Herro, replacing him with Lillard would certainly give them enough offensive firepower to win a title. As the trade discussions were going on, Haslem reassured Herro of his value.
“You’ve been here for four years, two Finals, Sixth Man of the Year…All that stuff in four years is more than some dudes accomplish in their whole career.”
Tyler Herro reveals Udonis Haslem’s harsh, real words to him during Damian Lillard trade rumors: https://t.co/OCGCyX3750
— Legion Hoops (@LegionHoops) October 20, 2023
Herro revealed that Udonis also kept things straight with him on how the league operates, “He wasn’t really trying to butter it up like ‘Oh, you might be coming back…He was like, ‘Yeah, you’re gone. And if you are gone, let’s not, like, feel disappointed.’ It was real. And I appreciate him for that.”
Although we are led to believe that the NBA is entering a player-empowered era, this disproves it. After all, Herro clearly wants to stay with the Heat. However, he would have had no choice in the matter if the Heat managed to get a deal done. Haslem explaining this to him clearly made Tyler appreciate his senior.