Jimmy Butler wins close vote for Larry Bird Trophy
Jimmy Butler was a valuable player during the Eastern Conference Finals. Most valuable? That was a toss-up.
In a close 5-4 vote, Butler won the Larry Bird Trophy, awarded to the most valuable conference finals player in the East (The West has the Magic Johnson Trophy).
Five media members chose Butler, while four of them went with teammate Caleb Martin, who shot 11-of-16 from the field and 4-of-6 from three-point range in Game 7.
For the series, he was 22-45 (48.9 percent) and made more threes than Boston's Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum combined.
Butler led the Heat in scoring, assists and steals in the series, averaging 24.7 points, 7.6 rebounds, 6.1 assists and 2.6 steals.
He dominated early in the series, but Boston smothered him later, holding him to 14 points in Game 5, and 5-of-21 shooting in Game 6 — though Butler almost won it with three late free throws.
Martin averaged 19.3 points and 6.4 rebounds with solid defense. Butler was the proverbial "head of the snake" on defense, but Martin, playing power forward despite being undersized, was instrumental shutting the Celtics down for many of the Heat wins.
Still, his MVP case comes down to the stunning number of big shots he hit, some with the clock running out.
The deciding vote for Butler came from TNT's Reggie Miller, who was calling Martin the MVP during the broadcast of Game 7.
Miller also spent much of Game 7 making "ca-ching" noises when Martin made a shot, and discussing how much money Martin would make as a free agent.
Fortunately for Miami, Martin is under contract for a bargain price of $6.8M next year.
The vote is defensible either way. Miami doesn't win the series without either player, and Martin's recent excellence shouldn't make voters forget how good Butler was earlier in the series.
Martin shot a much higher percentage, but Butler got to the free throw line 54 times to Martin's eight.
Martin will have to content himself with getting revenge on Boston for last year's conference finals loss, and with reaching his first NBA Finals.
But when ESPN takes over coverage of the Finals, Martin might have questions for Doris Burke and Tim Bontemps about their votes.
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