Former Miami Heat draft pick and West Virginia star Da'Sean Butler has finally been cleared by doctors to play basketball again. After suffering a torn ACL playing in the NCAA Final Four, the Heat was nonetheless intrigued enough by his talent to use one of their 3 second round picks on him and he was one of the last players cut on the team before the regular season began. Once Mike Miller went down with his wrist injury, Butler and Patrick Beverley (himself a second round pick from the year before) were cut to keep the roster down to the maximum 15 slots after signing veteran Jerry Stackhouse. Nevertheless, Butler for the most part remained in the area to continue his rehab.
Butler
himself broke the news on his Twitter page...
Jus left the doctors for the 2nd time this week. Cleared!!!!!!!! :)
...which incidentally features a picture of him showing off his back tattoo, an eerily unintentional remake of the infamous Michael "Supercool" Beasley picture.
.
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Butler’s agent Chet Ervin of KMG Sports confirmed the news on
West Virginia Illustrated,
We’ve kept teams up to date with where he is. Within the last couple of weeks, he has generated a lot of interest and we are expecting a lot more interest.
I think it’s likely that he could sign with somebody this season. He has worked out for several teams within the last few weeks. It’s very likely that he gets signed this season.
Everybody wants to see how strong the knee is and where he is at as far as conditioning-wise. The body of work speaks for itself, what he did in college. Everybody knows what type of player he is. It’s getting to know Da’Sean and his progress and getting to evaluate him.
Team by team he is going to serve a specific role with each team. Anybody that would sign him at this point, we’re looking at something long term so he could start his successful career there.
We’re going to put Da’Sean in the best position for him in the future. It’s not about this year, it’s about the opportunities to come.
