Eastern Conference Beware: Hassan Whiteside Is Pissed Off at DPOY Snub

MIAMI — While some NBA players carry around a chip on their shoulder, Miami Heat center Hassan Whiteside packs a pile of cinder blocks on his.

And his third-place finish in the Defensive Player of the Year voting—behind repeat winner Kawhi Leonard and runner-up Draymond Green—just added to the stack.

“I guess I’m thankful. I’m happy I’m there, I guess,” Whiteside said after Monday’s practice. “I don’t know. I’m not really.”

In his mind, there’s nothing worth celebrating. He made this award an open pursuit, then promptly put forth some mind-boggling numbers. His 269 blocks were almost 100 more than anyone else recorded (DeAndre Jordan was second with 177.) Whiteside is the only qualified player in Basketball-Reference.com’s database to have a nine-plus block percentage and a defensive rebound percentage of at least 32.

“I came out there, and I put up stats y’all ain’t seen in a decade,” he said. “Ain’t nothing to talk about.”

Obviously, the voters didn’t see it the same way. Frankly, neither did we. But that’s not the issue.

The 7-foot shot-swatting machine thought the hardware was his. Now that he knows it’s not, he can use it as kerosene to stoke his internal fire.

“I’m used to not getting credited for anything,” he said. “I’m used to getting overlooked. I’ve been looked over my whole life.”

Motivation

Whiteside rarely misses criticism, or even what he perceives to be such. Whether it’s coming from a national analyst or a social-media account, he hears it, occasionally responding but always filing it away in his mental database.

“I got cut three times. Or four. Five, maybe. I don’t know,” he said. “I got cut a lot. I had GMs say I would never play in the NBA. That was as close as the summer before I signed here. So now I just try to dominate.”

That’s why this “slight” should terrify the Eastern Conference. Whiteside is angry, and when he channels that emotion the right way, a better on-court product often emerges.

Remember the narrative about Miami’s defense faring better without Whiteside? The big guy does. And he used that as …

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