Butler deserving of All-Star selection

Body of work over last 6 months as good as any player in East

What Jimmy Butler accomplished last season during months that typically belong to football deserves more than to be lost in the ether of a juxtaposed 2019-20 NBA schedule.

So do right by both him and what the Heat accomplished in the Disney World quarantine bubble, even if, technically, the next move with rounding out the All-Star Game rosters is rounding them out with the top performers from the start of the 2020-21 season.

In a league turned upside down by the pandemic, with a previous season that ended in October, a current season that started in December and an All-Star Game to be played in March, tradition needs to be set aside.

For years, particularly when it has come to the popularity contest of voting for All-Star Game starters, selections have transcended the current season. In Butler’s case, that should be true with the reserves for this year’s game.

Because the every-last-breath

effort offered by the Miami Heat forward in last season’s playoffs deserves ample payoff, after the Heat were dispatched from the championship series stage by the Los Angeles Lakers.

No issue here with the combined fan-media-player vote for Giannis Antetokounmpo, Joel Embiid and Kevin Durant as the Eastern Conference starting frontcourt. Their teams have been at the top of the standings this season, and they individually have been at the top of their game. And, when living in the moment, Bam Adebayo could have an argument of deserving an All-Star berth ahead of Butler when solely accounting for this season, based on the time Butler has missed and Adebayo hasn’t. But that also has to be weighed.

The time Butler has missed includes a 10-game absence due to health and safety protocols. If anything should change the approach for 2021 All-Star selections, it should be the coronavirus, if only because of the way it has changed everything about this (and last) season’s NBA.

As a matter of perspective, Durant went into the weekend having played 19 games this season compared to Butler’s 17.

Yes, cases can be made for Domantas Sabonis, Jayson Tatum, Gordon Hayward, Julius Randle, Tobias Harris and Clint Capela ahead of Butler when it comes to the selection of East frontcourt reserves. But none of them stood as a face of the league, and certainly of the Eastern Conference, for two months at the end of last season.

No one went to the rooms of Sabonis, Tatum, Hayward, Randle or Capela to purchase coffee. None provided ample GIFs and soundbites to the degree that Butler helped keep the league afloat at a time when generating interest was paramount. Granted, considering the grind of getting back from his time in protocols and all that has been required during this most uneven of Heat seasons, there is plenty of value of Butler getting the entire needed week off during the All-Star break for the push that will be required for the second half of the schedule.

But the entire reason the NBA is staging an All-Star Game is to attract eyeballs, ratings, revenue and to offer a reminder of what the league can be when the season is whole, as it will be again soon enough.

Jimmy Butler, by personality alone, is an NBA whirlwind, with all due respect to this season’s accomplishments of

Hayward, Tatum, Sabonis and Randle.

He kept interest in the NBA percolating at a time when interest needed to be caffeinated. He won the bubble.

He can help the NBA win the All-Star Game. So now we wait until Thursday, to see what conference coaches have brewing when it comes to the All-Star reserves. Perhaps yet another triple-double by Butler before that influences their decision. But even if there isn’t another, the body of work over the last six months is as impressive as any other in the East.

All-Star Sunday deserves a Big Face. IN THE LANE

HERRO’S LOSS: While the NBA was able to fold its All-Star Saturday events into its one-day All-Star Weekend on March 7 in Atlanta, lost in the process was the Rising Stars Game that traditionally is held on the Friday before All-Star Sunday, which means Tyler Herro losing out on the opportunity to participate. The Heat guard missed the game for first- and second-year players last season in Chicago due to injury, while teammate Kendrick Nunn participated. It means Nunn will remain the Heat’s lone participant in the event since Norris Cole in 2012. Bam Adebayo, then a reserve behind Hassan Whiteside, never participated, nor did Justise Winslow and Josh Richardson during their Heat tenures.

QUICK STUDY: With both having played collegiately under Tom Crean, Minnesota Timberwolves rookie Anthony Edwards reiterated this past week how he is attempting to model his game after Dwyane Wade’s. Wade, who played under Crean at Marquette, said he not only worked with Edwards, who played under Crean at Georgia, but even sees a better version of himself.

“I got a chance to meet Anthony Edwards when he was a junior in high school, and sat down and watched film with him and Coach Crean up in Georgia, and it was great to see him go through that film session and understand at that time that he can get a lot better, “Wade said during a studio appearance on TNT. “And so watching him get better in college and now in the pros, it’s so great. I definitely think he can be a better player than I was; [he] has all the tools.”

The former Heat guard said he is excited about such possibilities from the Timberwolves guard.

“You set the bar so people can jump over that bar,” Wade said. “And I think he has the talent to be able to jump over a bar that I set.”

HOPE AHEAD: In the midst of this whirlwind season, the Heat this past week got some encouraging future thought when it came to The Athletic’s Prospect Rankings, where they placed fifth in the league, behind only: 1. Dallas Mavericks, 2. Atlanta Hawks, 3. Boston Celtics and 4. Memphis Grizzlies. The analysis opened with “[ Bam] Adebayo’s emergence over the last year continues to be the critical reason for the Heat’s rise on this board.” Adebayo was followed in the ratings of Heat emerging talent by Tyler Herro and Duncan Robinson, with it then noted of 2020 first-round pick Precious Achiuwa, “his defensive aptitude long-term is real.” Draft expert Sam Vecenie also noted in the piece of 2019 second-round pick KZ Okpala, “I’d bet on him being a rotation player at some point, and that might come sooner than people think.”

ANOTHER CHANCE: In the deep freeze for a while with the Brooklyn Nets, former Heat guard Tyler Johnson has found himself with a second chance in the rotation in recent games.

“I just love him as a person and a player; his competitive spirit is outstanding,” Nets coach Steve Nash said. “He’s been making some shots as well, and he’s very capable offensively of course. But that competitive nature, I think is really important for our group.” Included in Johnson’s recent action was a 32-minute stint in Tuesday night’s comeback road victory over the Phoenix Suns, when he scored 17.

POSTGAME HUMOR: As could be expected after a 19-point comeback for an overtime victory, Golden State Warriors guard

Stephen Curry was in a playful mood after Wednesday night’s game against the Heat, including when it was relayed to him that his wife had tweeted, “Daggggerrrrrrr” after his decisive 3-pointer in OT.

“How often do you guys talk after big games, and what’s that relationship like after a big win like this?” Curry was asked. He replied with a laugh, “It’s my wife, we talk all the time. What do you mean?” The questioner followed up, “I mean like, how late is she up?” Said Curry, “I hope she’s the first person I call after games.”

NUMBER

10. Consecutive overtime losses for the Warriors prior to Wednesday night’s 120-112 victory over the Heat. The 10-game streak tied for the longest in NBA history, with the Warriors previously without an overtime victory since Dec. 18, 2017 against the Lakers.