Udonis Haslem: Season will be saved

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NORTH MIAMI BEACH, Fla. -- Udonis Haslem hopes to be healthy enough to play soon.

And he's hopeful the NBA will be back in business before too long as well.

Haslem

The Miami Heat forward said Saturday that he believes the NBA's players and owners will come to terms on a new labor deal in time to save the season. The lockout is now in its third month, although there's hope that rounds of talks in recent days -- along with more scheduled for Tuesday -- means that some progress is being made.

"Both sides want to get a deal done. So that's a good thing," Haslem said. "At least both sides want to get a deal done. And I feel comfortable, confident that we will."

League and union officials met twice this past week, and will resume talks on Tuesday. The union plans to brief players more fully in Las Vegas on Thursday, the same day owners are scheduled to meet in Dallas.

Given that, it's possible the next few days will provide key clues to where things really stand.

"It could be a big week," Haslem said. "Compared to how much progress we've made in the past to now, this is great progress. We haven't really been able to have a conversation. There's been a lot of yelling, stuff going on. The fact that we've made some progress right now is a positive."

Haslem was speaking Saturday at a gathering to benefit the children's foundation bearing his name, one of several fundraising events he prefers doing without much publicity each year. He slipped into a pair of sandals as he emerged from the swimming pool, giving kids and guests at the event a good look at the scars that remain on his surgically repaired left foot.

He ruptured a ligament in the foot last November and missed the final 69 games of the regular season. Haslem returned midway through the playoffs and helped the Heat reach the NBA finals -- but those efforts came with a price, that being a setback in his recovery schedule. Miami wound up losing the finals to Dallas in six games.

"That's the price you pay," Haslem said. "I don't regret it at all. If I had another chance to do it, I'd do it again. I understood it was going to set me back. That was understood. That was strictly my choice."

Haslem is still in the recovery phase, and does not plan on returning to on-court play until he is pain-free. Still, he hasn't ruled out being ready if the Heat start training camp on time in early October.

For now, like just about every other NBA player, he's awaiting good news.

"If you hear that one side doesn't want it and the other side is kind of iffy, I'd be like, 'Oh, what's going on?'" Haslem said. "But the fact that both sides want to get a deal done, the way the season ended last year with the ratings being so high in the playoffs and the way our story ended, the story line is already written for next season if we have one. It'd be a shame if we didn't."

Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press

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