Udonis Haslem Names The Two NBA Legends He 'Still Wants To Fight'

Anthony Pasciolla | Nov 5, 2024

Jan 19, 2024; Miami, Florida, USA; Udonis Haslem speaks after his jersey was lifted to the rafters during the retirement ceremony during halftime of the game between the Miami Heat and the Atlanta Hawks Kaseya Center. Mandatory Credit: Jasen Vinlove-Imagn Images / Jasen Vinlove-Imagn Images

The Miami Heat-Boston Celtics rivalry dates back more than a decade.

The Heat and Celtics had multiple battles during the Big Three era, leading to some bad blood between Udonis Haslem and a pair of legends. Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett were two of the faces of Boston's organization at the time, but have been retired for more than five years each.

Still, Haslem didn't mince his words when discussing the idea of running into Pierce and Garnett again. He and Dwyane Wade shared on a recent episode of The OGs podcast there is a desire to fight the ex-Celtics stars.

"We'd have been in those battles with Boston, with KG and Paul Pierce and them, and it's them and there's chest bumping," Wade said. "People think you're going to fight. I want to fight! I wanna almost fight." 

"That's the problem. I still wanna fight," Haslem said. "I probably don't want to be around if we run into any of the names he named. There ain't going to almost be nothing."

The Heat came out on top in the rivalry in both of their playoff matchups with LeBron James and Wade at the helm. 2011 saw a five-game series win for the Heat in the Eastern Conference Semi Finals while the Celtics took them to Game 7 in the 2012 Eastern Conference Finals.

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Anthony Pasciolla works as a contributing writer to Miami Heat On SI. He can be reached at ampasciolla@gmail.com or follow him on X @AnthonyPasci.