Udonis Haslem revealed during the The OGs Show on Tuesday that he was almost traded for Allen Iverson during his Miami Heat playing days.
"My name was in the hat one time, we was talking about making a move for Iverson," he said (h/t NBA Central). "I was all shook up and s--t, but Dwyane Wade was like, 'Man, that's Allen Iverson.' Whatever reason that didn't work—I don't know if the dynamics with him and Dwyane would have worked at that time, so dynamically it didn't work—but my ass was almost out of there. How can I argue if you bring in Iverson? I gotta go."
Haslem didn't reveal which year he was almost dealt. But it was likely in 2006.
At the time, the Philadelphia 76ers had made Iverson available in trade talks after the disgruntled superstar requested to be dealt. Talks with the Heat reportedly got far enough along that head coach Pat Riley felt the need to address the media when those discussions broke down.
"We are out of the Allen Iverson conversation," he said in Sept. 2006. "This isn't going to move forward. We have discussed every scenario [but] it never became formal offers. It's time for us to move on."
Reports at the time—and Riley himself—said that 28 teams around the NBA had interest in acquiring Iverson.
"When you have 28 teams talking, it can get complicated," he noted. "And then, you start trying to match up the dollars. We just decided to move out."
At the time, the Heat were the defending champions behind the star duo of Wade and Shaquille O'Neal. But Shaq was recovering from knee surgery and the Heat, at the time of Riley's comments, were just 11-13.
Pairing two ball-dominant shooting guards in Iverson and Wade probably wouldn't have worked, hence the Heat not moving forward with the deal.
But had the Heat included Haslem—who was coming off a 2005-06 campaign that saw him average 9.3 points and 7.8 rebounds as the team's starting power forward—in a deal for a Hall of Famer like Iverson, few people would have raised a fuss about the decision.
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