Rasual Butler was the consummate NBA pro

The last time I talked to Rasual Butler was in the fall of 2016. He was trying to carve out a roster spot with Timberwolves, one last stop on a 13-year professional tour that had taken him from Miami to San Antonio with a half-dozen stops in between.

Butler was working with Andrew Wiggins on a basic NBA move: the cross-step corner three. In more general terms, it’s a pump fake followed by a quick crossover right into the shooting motion. It’s all in the footwork. Butler had it down cold, having performed the move a million times during his career.

It was a selfless thing he was doing, but he didn’t see it that way. Mentoring a younger player was just something pros did, and Butler was the consummate pro.

Butler died Wednesday morning in a single-car crash in Southern California, along with another passenger. He was 38.

I had first talked to Rasual more than a decade earlier when he was a scoring machine for La Salle in North Philly. Butler was awesome back then, a local kid from Roman Catholic who lit up the scoreboard and helped the Explorers remain competitive at a time when the other Philly schools were bursting with talent.

It took all of a few seconds for us to reconnect that day in Minnesota. Just saying the magic words — “I’m a Philly guy” — brought a smile to his face. We talked for a long time that day, mostly about the Wolves, but also about his career.

He had more than 800 games on his resume with more than 17,000 minutes and 6,000 points. If you knew about Butler as an NBA player it was because he had spent time in your city. He had solid years with Miami and excellent ones in New Orleans and Oklahoma City playing for the Hornets.

Butler bounced around quite a bit later in his career, with stops in Los Angeles, Toronto, Chicago, Indiana, and San Antonio, but he had one last great run in 2015 with the Wizards. He was never a star, but he was the kind of guy coaches liked to have around because he knew how to play.

Butler was a Philly guy, after all, and Philly guys understand the game inside and out.

Minnesota was his last chance. He knew the general manager Scott Layden from his Spurs days and played for Tom Thibodeau briefly in Chicago. So when they called and offered him a workout, he was on his way to Minnesota.

Watching him drain shot after shot that day it struck me that the line between NBA player and former one was very thin. Rasual could still play, but that didn’t mean there was space for him in the league.

“I kind of wish I was a little bit younger,” he said. “So I could be here longer with these guys.”

Now, he is gone. It goes so fast. If there’s a game in the afterlife, there’s a place for Rasual Butler. Rest in peace.