This was not an interview Udonis Haslem wanted to be having, making that clear immediately.
What has happened with FTX, the failed cryptocurrency exchange, and the ensuing charges filed against FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried hit home for the Miami Heat captain far more than in the pocketbook.
“He’s not a good person,” Haslem said this past week. “That’s just it.”
Yes, Haslem served as a spokesman for FTX, in commercials played both during Heat broadcasts and at FTX Arena.
But what he was fronting, in his view, were many of the elements that have made him a South Florida icon, with FTX initially approaching him from a philanthropic perspective, to help Haslem further his community initiatives.
“I’m not ashamed of any involvement. I came in with pure intentions,” he said as the Heat pushed through their four-game trip. “My point of it was, ‘You guys are doing a lot for charity. You’re in Miami now. What can you do for my city?’ And that was the stance that I took and we got some stuff done.
“So hopefully I’ll find somebody else to continue to partner with, to continue to do stuff in the city.”
In many ways, Haslem viewed the FTX ties the same way as the Miami-Dade and the Heat themselves did, a benefactor willing to provide a payoff that could resonate civically — as well as in the pocketbook.
“He did what he did and he got to pay the price,” Haslem said of Bankman-Fried. “He made decisions that affected a lot of people. I got a chance to meet a lot of those young kids that had relocated and packed their stuff up and came from wherever they were to move to Miami and put their hopes and dreams behind what FTX offered. Now these kids are in Miami starting all over again.
“Those are the people I feel sorry for.”
Bankman-Fried’s arrest came in the Bahamas, where he had set up shop. That, too, resonated with Haslem, with the Heat having held their preseason training camp in Nassau.
“I have a very large amount of contacts in the Bahamas, family members, just people that I’m close to,” Haslem said. “What they were doing for those islands and the people that were benefiting, those were the people that I was excited about and those are the things that I’m heartbroken about, because those people don’t have those opportunities anymore.”
Unlike athletes who invested with FTX, Haslem’s involvement was promotional.
“I got gypped out of $15 million,” he said. “That’s what my equity had grown to. He didn’t dupe me. I signed a contract with a company and that’s part of it.
“A lot of people got hurt, and that’s where I feel sad.”
Haslem said he was aware of the risk/reward element.
“I didn’t put no money in; I took it in equity,” he said. “I feel bad for the people that were hurt and lost money and really got caught up in that foolishness. But at the end of the day, I came in pure.
“I did a lot for the city. I was able to give small-business loans, I was able to do a lot for my charities.”
For the Heat, for Miami-Dade, for Haslem, is an unfortunate chapter not of their own making, but of a web of deceit with tentacles far beyond South Florida and the NBA.
“The good name of Udonis Haslem is not tarnished,” Haslem said “it was just linked.
“I was someone who got hired, with the best of intentions.”
