'If you are gone, let’s not feel disappointed" - Tyler Herro reveals Udonis Haslem's tough talk during Damian Lillard-Heat trade saga
During the offseason, Tyler Herro was hounded by trade rumors linking him to Damian Lillard. However, now that the most sought-after players have already been traded, he can expect a degree of stability with the Miami Heat, at least for this season.
At the height of the trade rumors, Herro said in an interview with The Ringer that he received candid yet valuable guidance from Heat legend Udonis Haslem. Having recently retired after a 20-year tenure with Miami, Haslem demonstrated that he can still serve as a pillar of support for players on the team.
“He wasn’t really trying to butter it up like ‘Oh, you might be coming back.’ He was like, ‘Yeah, you’re gone. And if you are gone, let’s not, like, feel disappointed,’” Herro recounted Haslem as saying. “It was real. And I appreciate him for that.”
Tyler Herro and his family recently settled into a new $10.5 million Miami mansion.
In July, as the young guard was nearing the end of his recovery after breaking his hand in the first game of last season’s playoffs, Lillard publicly requested a trade to the Heat, and Herro thought he had played his last game for Miami.
“I thought I was out of here,” Herro said. “I damn near had my s**t packed up.”
“But then the summer continued to go on,” he added, “and it didn’t happen.”
Herro said he wants to be part of a team without the constant speculation of being traded.
“I want to get myself to a place where I’m not thinking about if I’m getting traded every summer.”
Tyler Herro says being part of trade talks is tough
Tyler Herro said while some may view being associated with trades involving superstars as positive, it may not always be that way.
“At the end of the day, I was drafted here and I feel like I gave a lot to the team and a lot of the organization and a lot to the city,” he said.
“So that part can’t get ignored even though it is a business and it is for Kevin Durant or Damian Lillard. There’s still this whole other human side of it. So of course I’m gonna feel some type of way.”
Herro won the Sixth Man of the Year award at 22, and the following year, he was averaging 20 points, five rebounds and four assists per game.
“I’m one of the best young scorers in the league,” he said, “and I have the potential to be the best scorer in the NBA at some point.”