Former Miami Heat big man Hassan Whiteside credited Chris Bosh for helping get his act together after he was getting into trouble early on in his tenure in Miami.
“One of the best memories I have from my time in Miami was meeting guys like D-Wade (Dwyane Wade), Chris Bosh and Udonis Haslem,” Whiteside said. “When I first got to the Heat, I was getting suspended, getting into fights, and Bosh was always in my ear, telling me, ‘Hassan, you worked all this time to get here. Why are you throwing it away?’ He was one of the people who really helped me get my head straight.”
It’s noteworthy that Bosh and Whiteside were teammates on the Heat for multiple seasons. Bosh was nearing the end of his stint in the pros by the time Whiteside joined the Heat, however.
In March of 2015, Whiteside was ejected after getting into an altercation with Alex Len, who played for the Phoenix Suns at the time. He received another one-game suspension the very same month for delivering a hit to former Boston Celtics big man Kelly Olynyk.
Whiteside earned those suspensions in his first season with the Heat, but it seemingly wasn’t long before he took steps in the right direction towards handling his emotions better on the floor. The very next season, the 2015-16 regular season, was debatably Whiteside’s most productive as a member of the Heat organization.
He played in 73 games compared to only 42 the season prior, and he was also able to improve upon his scoring, rebounding and defensive numbers compared to his first season in Miami. Whiteside averaged 14.2 points, 11.8 rebounds and a league-high 3.7 blocks per game.
The 35-year-old helped the Heat to reach the second round of the 2016 NBA Playoffs, where they lost to DeMar DeRozan and the Toronto Raptors in seven games. Though Whiteside missed four of Miami’s 14 games during that span, when he was healthy enough to suit up, he was nothing short of dominant on the defensive side of the ball.
Whiteside averaged a team-high 8.3 defensive rebounds along with 2.8 blocks in just under 30 minutes of playing time per game.
In total, Whiteside spent five seasons of his NBA career with the Heat, with his last season coming in the 2018-19 campaign.
He hasn’t played in the NBA ever since he appeared in 65 games with the Utah Jazz in the 2021-22 regular season and six games during the 2022 NBA Playoffs.
