Michael Beasley says he was not happy during his time as a player with the Miami Heat, with the former No. 2 overall pick disappointed that he wasn’t given more of an opportunity with the franchise.
“I got mixed feelings,” Beasley said when asked by the Miami Herald how he views his Heat tenure 15 years after being drafted by Miami. “I love the Heat organization, I love a lot of people in the organization. But I had to grow into those feelings. When I was a player, I didn’t like them at all. I didn’t like what was going on, I didn’t like that I didn’t get an opportunity. I didn’t like the narrative behind me not getting an opportunity was my defense. I don’t like the fact that I never played more than 20 minutes, which means I always watched more than half the game [from the bench].”
After the Chicago Bulls selected Derrick Rose with the No. 1 pick in the 2008 NBA Draft, the Heat chose Beasley out of Kansas State University. He went on to average 14.3 points and 5.9 rebounds per game in two seasons for Miami before he was traded to the Minnesota Timberwolves in 2010 as the Heat were setting the stage for the combination of LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh.
Though Beasley has a lingering issue with his playing time, he did average more than 24 minutes per game in each of his first two seasons and started 78 games in his second year.
Beasley eventually got a chance to play with James, Wade and Bosh when he returned to the Heat for the 2013-14 season, and he again played for the Heat late in the 2014-15 campaign.
The 34-year-old last played in the NBA in the 2018-19 season for the Los Angeles Lakers, with a positive COVID-19 test preventing him from suiting up for the Brooklyn Nets the following campaign.
Though he has tried to come back and play in the NBA, he likely will end his career with nightly averages of 12.4 points and 4.7 rebounds in 609 games with seven teams. He is 10th in scoring average, 17th in rebounding average and 22nd in games played among players drafted in 2008.
Beasley and former Heat player Mario Chalmers will be participating in BIG3 league games at the Heat’s Kaseya Center this weekend. Chalmers won NBA titles with the Heat in 2012 and 2013 and said he would like to get into coaching someday.
“I still talk to Spo (Erik Spoelstra), I still talk to Pat Riley, I still talk to Alonzo [Mourning],” Chalmers said. “The organization, I’m still very cool with. I love the organization. They gave me my first chance in the league, so it’s always the utmost respect for them and I’m always rooting for them. Hopefully I’m trying to get on the coaching staff here in the next couple of years. So we’ll see how that works out.”
The return of former players to action in Miami comes against a backdrop of the Heat trying to add a significant new one. They remain in pursuit of acquiring Damian Lillard from the Portland Trail Blazers, though trade talks between the sides reportedly are not getting anywhere as the offseason moves along.
