Inside The Heat

Former Miami Heat Star Now Has NBA Veterans Coveting Role He Coined Late In Career

Shandel Richardson

Kiyoshi Mio-USA TODAY Sports
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John Wall was once one of the NBA's brightest starts before injuries slowed his career.

At 33, he wants one more shot at playing. He's willing to take on a role many Miami Heat fans are familiar with. Speaking on the Podcast P with Paul George, Wall said he would serve as a mentor to younger players just as Udonis Haslem did late in his career.

"I'm willing to accept any role it is to be on a team," Wall said. "If it's playing, not playing, being in a Udonis Haslem role. Anything like that, I just want to be in a NBA jersey again, because I know how much the game means to me, how much I still have left. If it's helping a team playing, if it's helping a team being a coach or a mentor, I'm willing to accept that."

The fact Haslem has a role named after him just adds to his legend. While fans criticized the Heat for "wasting" a roster spot, the Heat knew his value.

"When you’ve got 20 years of experience, like he does, and he’s knowledgeable and he has the right disposition for this organization, we want him to be in this organization as long as he wants to be,” Heat team president Pat Riley once said. “I mean, defining exactly what it is that he wants to do, I mean I would love to have UD around in whatever capacity."

Shandel Richardson is the publisher of Inside The Heat. He can be reached at shandelrich@gmail.com

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Shandel Richardson
SHANDEL RICHARDSON

Shandel has covered the NBA since 2010, with previous stops at The Athletic and South Florida Sun-Sentinel.  He has covered six NBA Finals, one Super Bowl, the NCAA basketball tournament. He has also been a beat writer for the Miami Hurricanes and contributed on every major beat in South Florida since 2003, including the Miami Dolphins and Miami Marlins. He can also be read in the Sportsbook Review for gambling coverage from around the NBA. A native of Bloomington, Illinois, Shandel attended Southern Illinois University in Carbondale. He's also worked for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and Kansas City Star.  TWITTER: @ShandelRich EMAIL: shandelrich@gmail.com You can subscribe to our YouTube channel here Follow all of our Miami Heat coverage on Facebook here