Hassan Whiteside is a tank. The past couple of months for him has been a dream. For Miami Heat fans like myself. He’s saved the Heat’s season. Without his emergence. The Heat would probably be out of the Playoff race. He’s been that important.
A few games ago he showed that he can hold his own. After dunking on Alex Len all night it got a bit hairy. Culminating in Whiteside tackling Len as if he’s a Linebacker decking a quarterback. Well last night, Whiteside was in a tussle again. Unfortunately, Hassan didn’t exactly have that much of a motive. As a play went along, Whiteside jogs at Kelly Olynyk and then pushes him. It wasn’t needed and the NBA has rightly suspended him for a game.
Dwyane Wade had a mini rant about it after the game, saying that he is feeling himself a little and needs to humble himself. Which is on point. Hassan today has talked on the incident via the Miami Herald.
“I feel terrible about it,” Whiteside said. “It’s probably the worst 12 hours of my life, you know, because just from the fact that we lost the game, and I let what happened with my personal stuff on the court affect the team. And I even reached out to Kelly, and I apologized, and he said he accepted my apology and he wishes me much success in the future.”
I have a feeling that the Miami veterans had a paw into Hassan’s actions. Reaching out to Kelly is something that DWade or Udonis told him to do. It’s the right thing to do and I’m glad he did that. That’s growth right there. And that’s great to see.
