MIAMI -- If there is any acrimony between the Hassan Whiteside and the Heat, a team he spent five seasons with prior to being traded to Portland last summer, you sure wouldn't be able to tell by the way the 7-0 center talks about his time in Miami.
"I always look forward to coming out here," said Whiteside, who is averaging 15.7 points on 60 percent shooting from the field, 13.8 rebounds, 2.8 blocks and 1.3 assists in 29.7 minutes per game this season. "I got my house out here, so I always look forward to coming to Miami. Coming back here brings back so many memories -- I spent five years here. I grew here and I learned a lot here."
Every now and then, a quote or a clip out of Miami will be read by some as a dig at Whiteside for whatever shortcomings he might have exhibited over the course of 324 games with the team, but on the eve his his return to Miami, the gregarious center had nothing but good things to say about his time in South Beach.
"It felt surreal," said Whiteside of walking into AmericanAirlines Arena for shootaround Saturday afternoon. "I never seen the away locker room, so it was a little weird. Definitely bring back a lot of memories."
Whiteside says he'll always be grateful to the Heat, even if things didn't exactly turn out the way either side would have liked. After bouncing around overseas after only appearing in 19 games over the course of two seasons with the Sacramento Kings, the Heat gave Whiteside the opportunity to get back into the NBA, and then a max contract a few seasons later.
"I think it was great, I became who I am," said Whiteside of how he remembers his time with the Heat. "They took a chance on me and I recommitted to them for four more years. We didn't get what we wanted to get, you always want to get that championship, but we battled."
It'll be a different kind of battle for Whiteside Sunday night in Miami, as it will be just the second time in his career that he's faced the Heat and the first time he'll do so as a contributor. What's more, he's likely to hear a mix of responses from the fans who cheered and sometimes jeered his exploits during his time with the Heat.
"I'm expecting the standard "you're not on our team no more" boos, the away boos," said Whiteside. "But I expect some cheers, too, because it was a lot of great memories here. From my first playoff appearance, being the third seed, going into the second round of the playoffs to getting injured in the second round of the playoffs to all of the different times that we went through. It was a lot of ups and downs, but I expect both."
But more than anything, Whiteside is hopeful his current team can get a win Sunday night after breaking a five-game losing streak versus the Wizards in Washington, D.C. Thursday night. Portland hasn't won consecutive road games since the second and third games of the season, so changing that with a win Sunday night against a Heat team sitting at third in the Eastern Conference would be a great way to start the second half of a five-game trip.
"We need this win. It would be a great win, too, to get," said Whiteside. "It's going to be exciting, Heat Nation is going to be up and at it. We playing a gritty team with a lot of shooters. They got a lot of shooters and they play defense, so they're gonna make it tough."