Haslem is now 40, with three sons …

Haslem is now 40, with three sons ranging in age from 9 to 21, and they’ve had a much different life experience given the lifestyle an NBA paycheck has afforded him. But Haslem still fears for his children because they exist in a place where they often look different than the people in their circle. “It’s even more scary,” Haslem said. “When you’re growing up in the inner city and you hear about police brutality and violence and things like that, you kind of feel like – and this is a terrible way to look at it – but you kind of be like, ‘It happens all the time.’ The police always messing with somebody. Or White people are always messing with us. You just kind of feel like that’s the norm. “And as you get older, you start to realize, that’s not normal and it’s not OK. And when you start to get out of your surroundings, which you were so confined in at that young age, you start to see the world at a different angle and different eyes and you realize there’s no way you should’ve been treated like that growing up. There’s no way your friends should’ve got harassed like that. There’s no way they went into your pockets and questioned you. But at that age, you just think that’s what it is.”