- Report: Opposing teams wanted Miami Heat to attach 1st-round pick to offload onerous contracts
- Jimmy Butler praises tennis star Carlos Alcaraz, who says he gets nervous playing in front of celebrities like Heat star
- Erik Spoelstra’s level-headed comments after Miami Heat get walloped by Brooklyn Nets
- Tyler Herro indicates Miami Heat are looking to finish 6th seed or higher
- Gilbert Arenas admits he couldn’t ‘beat [Dwyane] Wade for s–t’
- Tristan Thompson says Miami Heat LeBron James was ‘scariest’ version, Mario Chalmers on some ‘sucka s–t’
- Jimmy Butler admits he doesn’t start ‘playing for real’ until after the All-Star break
- Jimmy Butler on Dwyane Wade: ‘I always want to make him proud’
- Erik Spoelstra ‘open to anything’ amid Miami Heat’s ever-changing center rotation
- Stan Van Gundy says Dwyane Wade is the best last-shot player he’s ever seen
Hassan Whiteside Reacts to Being Snubbed in Annual GM Survey
- Updated: October 4, 2017
On Wednesday, the 2017-18 NBA GM Survey was released and when Miami Heat center Hassan Whiteside was excluded from the list of best NBA centers, he had some choice words for those who doubted him.
The Sun Sentinel‘s Ira Winderman reported on Whiteside’s reaction.
“I don’t care what them GM thinks,” Whiteside said following practice at AmericanAirlines Arena. “Four years ago, they didn’t think I could play in this league. I care about what Pat Riley and Coach Spo (Erik Spoelstra) think.”
Whiteside continued to say that he’ll prove his worth by defeating the teams with centers who were named to the list. Leading the list were Karl-Anthony Towns, Anthony Davis, Marc Gasol, and DeMarcus Cousins.
“I’m just killing whatever team they’re on,” he said. “I’ll just keep killing their team.”
He added that he doesn’t need awards or recognition to stay motivated.
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“I kind of draw from myself,” he said. “If I listened to everybody around me, I would never have come back from Lebanon, China, being cut four-plus times. I just kind of always draw from myself and that self-wish and I know the player I can be.”
Spoelstra weighed in on the snub as well, blaming Whiteside’s absence from the list on the Heat’s poor record last season. He believes recognition will come with greater team success.
“The only thing you can point to is that nobody saw us play,” he said. “We had such a bad record — we weren’t on TV, no one was watching, nobody cared. People started noticing in the second half, I’ll tell you that.”
GMs may not consider Whiteside among the league’s best yet, but if he continues to dominate as a defender and a rebounding force, and if the Heat continue to progress as a team, league-wide recognition for the talented big man is surely to follow.
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