NBA's Jimmy Butler comes to Argentina Open to see—who else?—Carlos Alcaraz

Jimmy Butler didn’t make the cut for this year’s NBA All-Star Game in Salt Lake City, but he used the brief break in the basketball season to meet one of the biggest stars in tennis.

Butler, the 33-year-old forward for the Miami Heat, met 19-year-old Carlos Alcaraz in Buenos Aires on Saturday, after the Argentina Open’s top seed moved forward and into his ninth career final.

Alcaraz had just defeated Bernabe Zapata Miralles on the tennis court, 6-2, 6-2, before he and Butler, who share a management agency, connected on a makeshift basketball court.

“I have seen him play several times,” Alcaraz said in a report from the ATP Tour. “I have a lot of respect for him, after all he is a legend of his sport, a star and to have him come to see me is a privilege.

“I thanked him and invited him to the final.”

In one perhaps carefully selected clip, Butler—who led the Heat to the NBA Finals in 2020—clanked a short jumper, while Alcaraz’s shot tickled the chain-link net.

“Miami, the Lakers, some others, there are several teams that I like a lot,” Alcaraz said in the report about his connection to basketball—one shared by many other tennis pros, most notably Nick Kyrgios. “I also like to play it and I’m not bad at it.”

Butler’s Instagram Story was chock-full of photos from his stop at the Argentina, which included a picture with former No. 3 Gabriela Sabatini—another Alcaraz admirer.

Messi bringing the World Cup home; Alcaraz returning in Buenos Aires; an NBA star visiting Argentina? Don't cry for the light blue and white.