Greg Cote’s Hot Button Top 10: Butler’s tense return, Lions big choke, CFP finale, Unrivaled & more
GREG COTE’S HOT BUTTON TOP 10 (JANUARY 19): WHAT IN SPORTS HAS GRABBED US THIS WEEK: Our Sunday Hot Button Top 10 notes column brings you what’s on our minds, locally and nationally but from a Miami perspective and accentuating stuff that’s big, weird, damnable, funny or otherwise worth needling, as the sports week just past pivots to the week ahead. Welcome to the 90th edition of your HB10:
1. HEAT: Butler returns, still wants out as Miami sinks to .500 with loss: Miami is 20-20 on cusp of NBA midseason after a 133-113 home loss to Nikola Jokic and Denver Friday. Heat has now lost three in a row and also lost its last three home games by combined 69 points. Jimmy Butler scored 18 in 33 minutes as he returned to a mix of cheers and scattered booing from a seven-game suspension after saying he wanted to be traded. And amid reports Heat players don’t want him back. Club seeks to accommodate his trade demand but has gotten no sufficient offer. Butler Friday on if the situation is fixable: “No comment.” Heat legend Dwyane Wade on his podcast, of the Butler saga: “It’s ending tragically.” Miami is back on home wood Sunday vs. San Antonio and superfreak Victor Wembanyama.
2. NFL: No. 1 seed Chiefs reach Champ Game (again), but top-seed Lions choke: Kansas City took care of business as always Saturday in a 23-14 dispatch of Houston, but then Detroit fell flat in a 45-31 home loss to Jayden Daniels and Washington. There goes America’s top rooting interest in a Lions team after its first NFL title since 1957 -- but Commanders fill in as a pretty good Cinderella, in its first NFC title game since 1991. Chiefs and Comms learn their opponents today as Eagles host Rams and Bills host Ravens.
3. COLLEGE FOOTBALL: By a landslide, America is rooting for Notre Dame: U.S. states are cheering for Notre Dame over Ohio State in Monday night’s College Football Playoff title game by a 48-2 margin. That’s according to BetOnline.ag, based on geo-tagged data from X (nee Twitter), which tracked 230,000 tweets for hashtags related to the game. Besides Ohio, only West Virginia favors OSU. Buckeyes are 8 12-point favorites and have won the championship more recently, in 2014 to ND’s 1988. It isn’t folks rooting for the underdogs, though. It’s that people hate Ohio State.
4. UNRIVALED: Grand opening weekend for Miami-based 3-on-3 women’s league: The six-team Unrivaled, a two-month, 3-on-3 offseason league made up of WNBA stars, launched with two games Friday, two Saturday and two more on Monday. The inaugural season, running through March 17, is being entirely contested in a specially-designed facility in the Miami suburb of Medley. Capacity is only 850 fans, making it essentially a made-for-TV enterprise on TNT and truTV. I Iove the “winning shot” format: Adding 11 points to the leading team’s score after three quarters -- and first team to that number wins. History: The first winning shot in the first game Friday night was scored by Skylar Diggins-Smith on a walkoff 3-pointer. The high-paying league is an unsubtle warning to the WNBA to significantly, and immediately, up its salary structure.
5. DOLPHINS: Miami to make history with first-ever game in Spain: The NFL’s systematic world takeover continues. Since its first in 2007, King Sport has now played 49 regular-season games in England (39), Mexico (5), Germany (4) and Brazil (1). Five more in 2025 will include three in London, one in Germany and the first-ever in Spain -- with the Miami Dolphins starring in Madrid, opponent and date to be announced. determined. It will not be a road game for Miami; rather, Dolfans must travel 4,400 miles to watch this “home” game. The Fins are 2-4 all-time out of country.
6. SOCCER: Messi, Inter Miami win preseason start; so does USMNT: Inter Miami uncorked ts 2025 preseason Saturday night with a penalty-shootout win over Mexican giant Club America after a 2-2- draw in Las Vegas. Homegrown player Santiago Morales hit the game winning penalty. Lionel Messi (of course) scored the first goal. IM continues The Americas Preseason Tour Jan. 29 in Peru vs. Universitario de Deportes. The U.S. men’s national team made good use of Inter Miami’s Fort Lauderdale stadium Saturday with a 3-1 exhibition win over Venezuela 3-1 in a friendly as new coach Mauricio Pochettino digs in. USMNT fielded a team mostly of MLS players with the team’s European stars like Christian Pulisic unavailable.
7. PANTHERS: No Cup hangover, but can Cats repeat as champs?: Stanley Cup champ Florida is 27-20 after Saturday’s 3-0 home win over Anaheim, but the Panthers are only 5-7 since just before Christmas. Cats are back on ice Tuesday at Anaheim to open a four-game western road swing. Tied for 11th most points in NHL and 12th in ESPN’s league rankings, Florida has avoid a Cup hangover ... but is it a team ready for a repeat?
8. HURRICANES: Offense takes double-hit as 2 declare for NFL Draft: RB Damien Martinez and TE Elijah Arroyo had eligibility left to return to Hurricanes in 2025 but instead are among 70 players nationally to declare for the ’25 NFL Draft. (The number will grow as Notre Dame and Ohio State players have until next Friday to declare.) Martinez had 1,002 yards rushing, a 6.3 average and 10 TDs this season and is a big loss. Arroyo had 35 catches for 590 yards and seven scores. But the Canes added CB Xavier Lucas as a transfer from Wisconsin.
9. TENNIS: Year’s first major at quarterfinals midpoint in Australia: Two quarterfinals are set with two yet to be determined on both the men’s and women’s sides Down Under. Novak Djokovic vs. Carlos Alacarez headline the men’s quarters set thus far, with top seed Jannik Sinner still alive. Top seed Aryna Sabalenka and Coco Gauff were among the first to advance to separate quarters on the women’s side.
10. NHL: Ovechkin closes in, but Gretzky will always be The Great(est) One: Washington Capitals star Alex Ovechkin cashed his 21st goal of this NHL season to move within 21 of breaking Wayne Gretzky’s long-standing hockey career record of 894. It will be close whether he breaks it this season, but, even at 39, it seems inevitable he eventually will. But make no mistake: Gretzky, leading 9-3 in Hart MVP Trophies, 4-1 in Stanley Cups, and 1,963 to 709 in assists, No. 99 can abide the loss of the goals record and still forever be The Great One.
BONUS: One of a kind. R.I.P. at 90, Bob Uecker: The man Johnny Carson nicknamed “Mr. Baseball” was famously bad at baseball. A backup catcher and career .200 hitter in six journeyman seasons in the 1960s, Uecker led NL catchers in errors and passed balls in 1967 despite playing only 80 games. Yet he enjoyed a 50-year Hall of Fame broadcast career as radio voice of his hometown Brewers, and his self-deprecating wit saw him a late-night TV staple, a star in Miller Lite ads, a Saturday Night Live host, and featured in TV’s Mr. Belvedere and the three Major League films. To a life quite unlike any other, R.I.P.
THE LIST: NHL CAREER GOALS LEADERS: Top five in all-time regular season NHL goals:
Goals Player Years Games
894 Wayne Gretzky 1979-99 1,487
874 Alex Ovechkin 2005-active 1,455
801 Gordie Howe 1946-80 1,767
766 Jaromir Jagr 1990-2018 1,733
741 Brett Hull 1986-2006 1,269
Note: Second-most by an active player, after Ovechkin, is Sidney Crosby with 604 goals.
Other most recent stuff from me: NFL Division Round playoff picks // Hurricanes bank on QB Carson Beck to lead ‘monster jump’ to 6th national title // Previous HB 10 // Poll Dance: Notre Dame-Ohio State // Notre Dame wins Orange Bowl, CFP semi as Miami Hurricanes sink into ‘What if?’ // Herald NFL Final 2024 QB Rankings // Loss, playoff elimination as Miami Dolphins’ half-century wait for relevance goes on // Aging star Jimmy Butler a victim of own selfish pride as his Miami Hear era nears sad end // Our Top 10 biggest Miami/South Florida sports stories of 2024 // Canes’ Larranaga lost heart for game in ‘new world’ cannibalizing college sports // Time for Heat to trade Jimmy Butler, say goodbye, move on if deal is right // It’s mountaintop to hinterlands for Miami Marlins’ new manager // Messi, Inter Miami out in MLS playoffs’ first round a stunning disappointment // ‘Who is that guy?’ Dwyane Wade deserves immortality of statue -- iffy likeness or not // Pete Rose wasn’t perfect, but MLB’s endless lack of mercy followed him to grave // And my latest podcast:
