I've dealt with him professionally. This was literally about 11 years ago, doing a promo with the Boomers when they were playing in Sydney. No-one on the team was 'difficult' to deal with, but all of them bar two were just doing what they had to without much enthusiasm. Stand there, do that, look grumpy, then leave. Both Heal and Gaze though went out of their way continually to make sure everything was okay, we were getting everything we wanted, happy to do it all again etc, Heal keen to make sure we knew he would be back in Sydney in a week should we need anything else, just contact him via the Kings and he'll make time.
His public persona is one thing, definitely I'd say as much deliberate as natural, and his private one probably has a nasty side to it (see the Dragons debacles), but he certainly was professional and keen to do whatever he could to promote the game, something I think you certainly couldn't fault him for over the years, and something that is sadly lacking in a lot of the top players today (and even then). Gaze was the same, and no surprises that both are probably the only two NBL household names we've ever had at a national level.