Blazers' Hassan Whiteside on Miami Heat Tenure: 'I Mean, S--t Happens'

The Portland Trail Blazers acquired Hassan Whiteside from the Miami Heat via trade this past offseason. On Wednesday, Shandel Richardson of The Athletic asked him whether he left his old team on bad terms.

"I feel like everything I say nowadays is kind of twisted and it's like, 'He's saying this about the Heat.' No, I'm not. I don't have anything to say about them. It was great. Miami is a great place to live. I still got my house there. Coach (Erik Spoelstra), Pat, we're good. I chose them over several other teams before I signed a new contract. It was just a learning experience. We didn't get what we wanted out of it. We didn't get the championship. We didn't get the Finals. I mean, s--t happens."

His time with the Heat included being benched in crunch time, a fine and inconsistent play, but Whiteside's response suggests he isn't dwelling on the past.

Whiteside played only 23.3 minutes per game last season with the Heat, which was his lowest total during his tenure in Miami, as Bam Adebayo took some of his playing time.

Anthony Chiang of the Miami Herald noted Whiteside "expressed frustration about his role multiple times" while he was with the Heat. The team fined him in April 2018 for an expletive-filled rant about his playing time, per Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun Sentinel.

"Man, it's annoying. Why we matching up? We got one of the best centers in the league. Why we matching up? A lot of teams don't have a good center. They're going to use their strength.

"It's bulls--t. It's really bulls--t, man. There's a lot of teams that could use a center. S--t. That's bulls--t."

However, Whiteside has repeatedly downplayed the idea that there is still bad blood between himself and the Heat.

"I think my time in Miami kind of wore out," he told Richardson. "I'm happy for those guys. I still talk to the staff in Miami and I don't have any ill will."

Whiteside is averaging 14.3 points, 12.0 rebounds and 1.3 blocks while shooting 66 percent from the field in six games for the Trail Blazers. The team is off to a sluggish 3-4 start and is playing without fellow bigs Zach Collins, Jusuf Nurkic and Pau Gasol because of injuries.

That means Whiteside must stabilize Portland's frontcourt rotation, especially since Enes Kanter is no longer on the roster.