Tag: Gators in NBA

Gator great Udonis Haslem scores 24 points in final NBA regular-season game

Tip of the cap to Udonis Haslem for going out in style.

All good things must come to an end the adage says and for former Florida center Udonis Haslem, his 20-year run in the National Basketball Association finally came to a close on Sunday against the Orlando Magic. He put up 24 points in 25 minutes for the Miami Heat in the final game of the regular season.

While the 6-foot-8-inch frontcourt bruiser never earned any significant personal accolades, he was a part of three championship-winning teams during his two-decade tenure with the only NBA team that he ever played for. Haslem’s court time diminished precipitously in the final seven years of his career but he still found ways to contribute both on and off the court.

“I’m going to miss his spirit,” head coach Erik Spoelstra said according to ESPN. “I’m going to miss his voice. I’m going to miss his intentions. He has incredible, pure, team intentions. Every single day. He doesn’t have a bad day. He may express himself with anger other times at his teammates or even with me, but his intentions are pure.

“He doesn’t have bad days, there’s not a moodiness, he doesn’t come in with any kind of baggage. It’s pure. It’s always about winning. How can he help somebody else? How can he help the team? How can he help mentor? That’s what keeps his mind going constantly.”

Haslem went undrafted in the 2002 NBA draft and opted to play in France with Chalon-Sur-Saône of the French LNB Pro A to kick off his professional career. He arrived across the pond weighing nearly 300 pounds but managed to shed 50 of those pounds over the course of eight months, opening the door for a return to the States.

The Heat signed him as a free agent ahead of the 2003 season and Haslem participated in numerous rookie events, ultimately earning NBA All-Rookie Second Team honors. And the rest, as they say, is history.

The Gators alumnus played in 879 career NBA games — starting 501 of them — averaging 7.5 points on 48.9% shooting from the floor and 6.6 rebounds per game for the Heat.

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Former Gator Tre Mann notches first career triple-double at any level

Tre Mann recorded his first career triple-double ever at any level of competition on Sunday for the Thunder.

It has been a couple of years since former Florida guard Tre Mann departed Gainesville for the National Basketball Association, where he currently serves as a backup on the Oklahoma City Thunder. On Sunday night against the Memphis Grizzlies with both teams primarily playing their reserves in the regular-season finale, the erstwhile Gator notched his first-ever triple-double at any level of competition.

Mann finished with 24 points on 9-for-16 shooting from the field, along with 12 assists and 12 rebounds in 47 minutes of court time. As a reward for his efforts, his teammates drenched him in cold water and Gatorade — a fitting finish for the former Florida standout.

“I seen it coming but I didn’t know they were going to keep coming,” Mann joked, vowing revenge. “I’ll get them back though.”

The feat caps off a rough campaign for Mann, who appeared in 67 games with five starts while averaging 17.7 minutes per game. For the 2022-23 season, he averaged 7.7 points, 2.3 rebounds, 1.8 assists and 0.7 steals per game in his year in OKC.

“It was a tough year for me obviously, but I just focus day-to-day trying to get better,” Mann said, “I am a better player than I was last year, just didn’t get to show it this year.”

The Thunder are mired with the 10th seed in the upcoming NBA playoffs while the Grizzlies are way up at the second seed. The ninth-seeded Pelicans lost, which means they will host the Thunder in their play-in tournament game on Wednesday, April 12, on ESPN.

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Former Gator Bradley Beal could enter free agency for first time

Bradley Beal is rightfully looking to get paid.

Bradley Beal may have only played one season wearing the Orange and Blue but he will forever be a Gator, and he currently represents the best former Florida player active in the NBA. Drafted with the third overall pick in the 2012 NBA draft — second-highest only to the legendary Neal Walk and tied with current Boston Celtic [autotag]Al Horford[/autotag] — the prolific scoring guard spent the first decade of his professional career in D.C.

But that tenure in the nation’s capital might be coming to an end.

In an interview with Josh Robbins of The Athletic, Beal revealed he has made a decision on his future, but because his current contract has not yet expired he declined to provide any insight. All indicators point toward a dive into free agency for the first time in his 10-year career, but he expects plenty of turbulence ahead.

“My situation? Crazy probably,” he told the Associated Press.

According to Spotrac, Beal is set to make a guaranteed $36,422,136 in the final year of his contract extension with the Wizards if he exercises his player option. However, he appears to be hungering for more despite a career often marred by injuries while coming off a down year in which he averaged a team-high 23.2 points on 45.1% shooting but a career-low 30.0% from three over 40 games last season.

If he were to return to the Wizards — who own his Bird rights — Beal is eligible for a five-year maximum deal amounting to nearly $248 million, versus a four-year, $184 million cap on contracts with the rest of the NBA franchises.

The former Gator was recently cleared to resume basketball activities after his campaign was shortened by season-ending wrist surgery back in February, which has complicated his future options thus far. The shooting guard is just a year separated from a two-season stretch in which he became the first UF alumnus to average over 30 points a game in the NBA: 30.5 ppg in 2019-20 and 31.3 ppg in 2020-21. He was edged by future Hall of Famer Stephen Curry in the latter season for the scoring title.

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Former Gator Joakim Noah retires with Bulls on one-day contract

Joakim Noah helped lead Florida to two consecutive national championships before heading to the NBA.

After 13 seasons playing in the National Basketball Association, former Gator Joakim Noah is retiring from professional basketball.

Noah signed a ceremonial contract with the Chicago Bulls on Thursday to retire with the team he spent most of his career with. Known as a player who would simply outwork everyone else on the court, Noah’s authenticity resonated with the city of Chicago just as it did in Gainesville during the Gators’ two championship runs with him. The team put together a tribute video featuring former teammates and coaches of Noah and released it on social media to announce the official retirement.

Noah came to Florida as a four-star recruit, ranked No. 73 in the nation back in 2004. After a few years of development and David Lee’s departure to the NBA, Noah found himself in a position to become a key player for Florida. It took a challenge from Billy Donovan to whip Noah into shape, according to EPSN, but he became known for his grit from that point on. Back-to-back championship boosted Noah’s draft stock enough to get him drafted ninth overall.

The rest, as they say, is history. Noah had some memorable years with Derrick Rose in Chicago before injuries derailed the team, and he was voted an All-Star in 2012 and 2013. After leaving Chicago, Noah’s career began to trend downward as he battled injuries regularly. New York and Memphis didn’t work out and his final season was spent with the Los Angeles Clippers, although he only played in five games.

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Grading former Gator Tre Mann’s NBA debut with Oklahoma City

The former Florida guard impressed against the Utah Jazz in his first game.

Florida’s first NBA draft pick in eight years (and first-round pick in nine years) took the court for the first time in a game that counts on Wednesday night. Guard Tre Mann, the 18th pick in the 2021 NBA draft, made his professional debut with the Oklahoma City Thunder against the Utah Jazz and had a solid game to start his pro career.

Despite seeing rotational action off the bench and playing just 15 minutes, he scored nine points in his first game and went 4 of 7 from the field. He also hit a pull-up jumper off a high pick and roll just before the first-quarter buzzer with his foot on the line, making it a long two.

Mann also had an assist, a steal and a block in his debut.

That’s about all you could hope for from a project player who was expected to see a minor role on the team this season, and for his effort, he earned a “B” grade from Thunder Wire.

It was a decent opener for Mann. His minutes might fluctuate with the need to get Ty Jerome some action — on Wednesday, Jerome was a DNP — but the rookie earned time moving forward.

Jerome was a solid rotational guard for the Thunder last year, averaging 10.1 points and 3.6 assists, and he and Theo Maladon are Mann’s biggest competitors for reps right now. But the raw first-round rookie should be able to see a significant role in the rotation as the season progresses.

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Former Gator great retires from basketball, reunites with Billy Donovan on Bulls

Billy Donovan is bringing one of his old Florida players to the Chicago Bulls’ staff.

Taurean Green is reuniting with the coach he won back-to-back NCAA championships with at Florida in Billy Donovan. Green announced his retirement from playing professional basketball and that he was joining the Chicago Bulls as a Player Development Coordinator on Tuesday.

Green led Florida with eight 20-point games in the 2005-06 season and had a memorable passing performance in the national championship win over UCLA. His NBA career was brief after being drafted 52nd overall by the Portland Trail Blazers in the 2007 NBA draft. Green spent time in the developmental league before being recalled, traded twice (Denver and New York) and released.

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The 12 years following Green’s last NBA game were spent overseas in several European leagues. He collected a French League title in 2013 with Limoges CSP and was named Israeli League Round 12 MVP in 2018. Green played in The Basketball Tournament on ESPN in 2017, but his team was knocked out in the first round despite his 15 points.

In his announcement post, Green said that he’d write a book one day and divulge all the stories from his playing career. After 14 years, Green’s basketball career has satisfyingly come full circle, starting his post-playing days with the coach he won the most with.

The Bulls won their first preseason game 131-95 against the Cleveland Cavaliers in Green’s first game with the team.

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NBA star and former Gator Bradley Beal says he isn’t vaccinated

The former Gator and current Washington Wizard said that he remains unvaccinated for personal reasons.

Former Florida and current Washington Wizards guard Bradley Beal could face the ire of the NBA’s COVID-19 protocol this season, as the three-time all-star announced that he still hasn’t received the vaccine against the virus for personal reasons.

“I don’t feel pressure [to get vaccinated],” Beal said on Monday, per ESPN’s Ohm Youngmisuk. “I don’t think you can pressure anybody into making a decision about their body or what they put into their body. We can have this discussion about a lot of different topics besides vaccines too. You can’t necessarily force anybody or kind of say it’s time for a vaccine. I think you kind of let people come into their own about it. If they do their research when they feel comfortable, they do it.

“I definitely think about it, for sure,” he said. “With the guidelines that the league makes and everything, the protocols they’re doing, it kind of makes it difficult on us to where they kind of force us in a way to want to get it. At the end of the day, I talk it over with my family and we make a decision what’s best for us.”

The NBA has instituted strict limitations on players who choose to remain unvaccinated, such as regular testing, quarantining when in close contact with someone with the virus, limiting access to team facilities, keeping them separated from vaccinated players in the facilities they are allowed to enter and dictating what they can and can’t do doing their free time.

However, the real doozy is the fact that players who have to miss games for COVID-19 may have to forfeit their salary from those games. Ultimately, the NBA wants to have as many players vaccinated as possible, and its strategy seems to be working so far. According to the league, around 90% of players are currently vaccinated, though Beal is a member of a group of prominent holdouts.

“We can talk all day about it,” Beal said. “Everybody is going to have their own opinion. Everybody is going to have their own timing and comfort of when they feel like they want to meet those criteria needs or feel like they want to get the vaccine.”

Beal was originally supposed to go to Tokyo this summer to compete on the men’s national team at the Olympics, but he had to enter the health and safety protocol before the trip and was scratched from the roster.

While Beal hasn’t ruled out getting the vaccine at some point, it seems likely that he will begin the season as one of the few players who are still unvaccinated.

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Pat Dooley’s Book of Lists – Volume 20: The 10 greatest Gator NBA players

Here’s a look at the 10 greatest former Gators who played in the NBA according to longtime UF sports journalist Pat Dooley.

Former longtime Gainesville Sun sportswriter Pat Dooley contributes on a weekly basis to Gators Wire with “Pat Dooley’s Book of Lists,” chronicling his thoughts on the past, present and future of Gators sports. Look for more frequent contributions during football season.

The NBA draft is coming up Thursday and it has been very, very good to the Gators over the last two decades. Not Kentucky good, but when you consider that 21 players were drafted before Billy Donovan walked through that door and 19 players recruited by Donovan (that includes transfers) were drafted, well, you see why a massive picture of Billy D still towers over the lobby of the practice facility.

Unfortunately for Mike White, Florida is now on a seven-year run of getting shut out in the draft. That will almost certainly end this year with Tre Mann being touted as a high first-round pick (probably late in the first) and Scottie Lewis with an outside shot at being a second-round pick.

The draft is a lot more fickle than it was BB (Before Billy) with only two rounds and so many more foreign players in the mix. Back in 1968, David Miller was selected in the 12th round.

That sounds like a long day of drafting practice players.

Certainly, there have been plenty of Gator players who went on to have excellent careers (not to mention lucrative careers overseas).

Here are the 10 best Gator NBA players:

Should Bradley Beal ask for a trade out of Washington?

Bradley Beal and his team face another early exit from the playoffs. After nine seasons, is it time for Beal to ask for a trade from D.C.?

There are only a handful of NBA stars who have stuck with one team for the duration of their career in this current era of basketball.

Former Florida one-and-done star Bradley Beal has spent nine seasons with the Washington Wizards where they’ve been stuck in mediocrity. Washington has only made the playoffs five times where it has failed to escape the first two rounds of the postseason.

Sports Illustrated NBA writer Howard Beck wrote a column about how much longer Beal can take playing for one of the bottom dwellers in the NBA who is currently facing another first-round exit.

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Beck and other NBA front-office executives believe it’s time that Beal embraces change while he remains in the prime of his career. The former Gators shooting guard has proven he’s one of the best scorers in the league, averaging 30 points per game the last two seasons.

I agree with Beck and the executives he spoke with that it’s time for Beal to ask for a trade. He has been snubbed for individual awards due to his team’s poor play and hasn’t sniffed playoff success. I also think it would work out well for both sides in the long run.

For Beal, he can join a contender with another or a pair of superstars next season like when James Harden was traded from the Rockets to the Nets. He has been great to Washington and his loyalty to the Wizards should be greatly appreciated.

Washington would benefit from trading him because it can finally escape this wash, rinse and repeat cycle of making the playoffs and then being eliminated shortly thereafter. Trading for former Houston point guard Russell Westbrook helped satisfy Beal, but Westbrook turns 33 in November and his level of play has started to decline.

If the Wizards hit the reset button, they can get draft capital and a host of young players in return for Beal because he’s under contract until 2022-2023. For example, the Thunder got five first-round picks, two pick swaps and a budding all-star in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander for Paul George.

They can also have a better chance of earning a higher draft pick to build around Rui Hachimura, their top pick in 2019.

Both parties would have a greater chance of achieving their goals if Beal asked for a trade out of Washington.

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Check out how these former Gators performed in Game 1 of NBA playoffs

Dorian Finney-Smith poured in a playoff career-high in a Game 1 win. Bradley Beal recorded 33 points in an opening series loss to the 76ers.

Former Gators basketball star Dorian Finney-Smith recorded a playoff career-high to help the Mavericks earn a 113-103 Game 1 victory over the Los Angeles Clippers.

Finney-Smith wasn’t the only former Florida player to make the NBA playoffs. Washington Wizards guard Bradley Beal returned to the postseason for the first time in two years. He shined and netted 33 points in a narrow defeat to the Philadelphia 76ers.

The 6-foot-7-inch Dallas power forward made the Clippers pay when they left him open. His star teammate Luka Doncic poured in 31 points and 11 assists that forced Los Angeles to guard him full court. Its coach Tyronn Lue elected to send a double-team his way that forced him to surrender the ball.

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When Doncic or another Mavericks player found Finney-Smith, he nailed the open shots. He finished the game four for five from beyond the arc and added five rebounds and two assists.

“I just know they’re going to send two guys at Luka,” Finney-Smith said, according to ESPN. “You’ve just got to be ready to shoot.”

His coach Rick Carlisle praised his efforts following the win.

“He has great belief in himself,” he said, according to Mavs Moneyball. “His 3-pointer tonight was absolutely key to the win.”

Finney-Smith will need to stay hot from deep if Dallas hopes to knock off the Clippers. The Mavericks also stole home-court advantage. The series will continue in Los Angeles Tuesday at 10:30 p.m. EDT and can be seen on NBATV.

On the other hand, Beal and the Wizards hope to bounce back after a 125-118 loss to No. 1-seeded Philadelphia.

The former Florida diaper dandy tallied 33 points in the game but struggled from the 3-point line and only hit 16.7% of his shots. He failed to get help from his other all-star Russell Westbrook who only offered 16 in the game.

Game 2 remains in Philadelphia and tip off will be on Wednesday at 7 p.m. EDT and can be seen on NBATV.

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