Following the Miami Heat’s loss to the New York Knicks last week, former Heat legend Udonis Haslem challenged Kel’el Ware to be more aggressive in the rebound department. Ware took the challenge personally on Monday.
After the Heat lost 140-132 to the Knicks on Friday last week, Haslem shared on the Amazon Prime broadcast a conversation that he and Ware had regarding his rebounding. Ware had 10 rebounds in the loss, but had trouble containing Knicks big men Mitchell Robinson and Karl-Anthony Towns off the glass.
Ware bounced back in a big way on Monday, securing 14 rebounds (six offensive) in the win. After the game, Ware spoke with reporters about the mentorship he has received from Haslem of late.
“He’s one of the people that hangs his hat on rebounds,” Ware said. “Hearing he wants me to be better is motivation for me to go and box out more and getting better at that.”
Of course, Haslem’s 5,791 career rebounds is the most in franchise history, so there aren’t many better options for a young player such as Ware to learn from in that department.
Ware will look to continue his bounce back stretch into the rest of the season, as the Heat are going to need him to step up in order to earn back the trust of head coach Erik Spoelstra.
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