He is dead. The head coach of the Miami Heat team has just

He is dead. The head coach of the Miami Heat team has just announced the death of his best player.

Before he became the captain for the Miami Heat, Udonis Haslem looked with reverence toward his captain, the teammate at the University of Florida who set the seeds of leadership that remain in place more than two decades later.

That is what has made this past month so tough, andthat is the reason Haslem missed five games for what the Heat listed as personal reasons.

Because there was a point before he found his way that Haslem needed a driving force to provide direction on the court and beyond.

That advice came from Major Parker, the former Cardinal Gibbons standout who was the state’s 4A Player of the Year in 1997 and went on to captain Haslem’s Gators for two seasons.

Parker is gone, recently falling to a heart attack at 44.

So even as he is with the Heat for these Wednesday and Friday night games against the Boston Celtics at TD Garden, it is why Haslem stays in mourning.

“That’s something that you just never expect—somebody at 44 years old to unexpectedly die of a heart attack,” Haslem said during a quiet moment in the Heat locker room. “Talk about leadership, and you talk about work ethic; guys like him and Brent Wright, those guys have always worked like that. I had to learn to work like that.

“I was just a naturally gifted guy at a young age. I had to learn how to work like that. And then there’s guys like Major and Brent that push me every day. And through that, there was a bond that was built with us three that lasts forever.”

Haslem, who played alongside Parker with the Gators, needed the very type of direction that Haslem, now 42, tries to impart to the Heat’s neophytes.

What he, Parker, and Wright had was supposed to last a lifetime.

“Me, Major Parker, and Brent Wright stayed connected and took trips throughout the summers,” Haslem said. “Major worked my basketball camps. Those are two guys that I planned on ’taking trips withtil 70 or 80 and having those times together.

“And it just changed so fast, so drastically. And I just wasn’t ready.”

So Haslem stayed away as the heat played on.

“I kind of struggled not being with the team,” Haslem admitted. “I watched every game. But mentally, emotionally, and physically, you just can’t pour from an empty cup. So physically and emotionally, I wasn’t able to help the guys.”

Parker’s story was a complicated one, including a drug bust that came out of a need to provide for family, one without jail time, and then a previous heart attack.

(left) Major Parker gets led off the court by Udonis Haslem, who coached a University of Florida alumni basketball game at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton.
(left) Major Parker gets led off the court by Udonis Haslem, who coached a University of Florida alumni basketball game at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton.
Each time, he bounced back, in the community, with family and friends. Each time with Haslem by his side.

“He’s a tough dude,” Haslem said. “We didn’t expect anything different. Even after the first heart attack, everything was going well. You just thought that he was fine and that he was going to be cool.

“I feel for his wife. He’s got four children. Come on, man. Black women, in today’s culture, want their father; they need their father. There’s just so much to be sad about. Hey, man, I don’t know; it’s a tough one.”

So now more loss, with Haslem losing his father just over a year ago.

“And I’m still recovering from the things I did with my father. This was a lot of trauma,” Haslem said. “So I’m still trying to get myself together. It’s a work in progress.”

So as the heat played on, Haslem paid thanks, including at the funeral in Fort Lauderdale.

“Teddy Dupay, who I haven’t seen in a while, was there,” Haslem said. “Coach [Billy] Donovan’s wife was there. A lot of people we hung out with, not just from the basketball team, were there. It wound up being a little bit of a gathering.

“But I miss him, man. I miss him a lot.”