On Friday night, Arcade Fire band leader Win Butler participated in the NBA All Star Weekend's celebrity game, competing for the West team alongside players like Chris Mullin, Skylar Diggins and Mone Davis. Given that Butler and I have a long-standing (read: one-sided) feud about a 1- on-1 game that Butler seems afraid to take me up on, I'm here with my noted basketball expertise to break down Butler's performance in the game with help from a few Vinesual aids.
First, a little bit about what I knew about Butler's game before this game: Butler is big—6'4''—but sees himself as more of a "stretch four" and likes to play around the perimeter. He has a reputation of being that guy who tries way too hard in a pickup game, and he's also that guy who wears a fancy throwback uniform that costs $225 to the Y. He's a big Houston Rockets fan, and most of his references seemed constrained to the era of the mid-'90s Rockets. (Example: He recently said that Pelicans All-Star Anthony Davis "reminds me of Hakeem Olajuwon" and dude won't shut up about, like, Mario Elie). Once again, Butler is a big dude, and with that hair-headband combo he kind of looks like Kelly Olynyk if Kelly Olynyk spent the entire offseason at Sammy's Roumanian snuggling pilsners.
In conclusion, I knew Butler could run the floor and would likely try harder than everyone in the game, and that if anyone was going to smash Sarah Silverman in the face with an elbow on accident because he was playing too hard, it would be Butler. Now, onto the game.
THE GAME
As soon as Butler got in, he turned it over.
BUTLER WITH THE OUTLET! Hollld youurrrr mistake up!
Who was he even trying to pass it to there? Jesus.
While Butler was generally pretty nimble on the block, here's an early shot that went awry:
After a sloppy start, things improved quickly for Butler—he was running the floor on every play, rebounding hard and diving into passing lanes for easy buckets.
Though Butler ended up with 10 rebounds—the thought of someone diligently filling out a scoresheet for this fucking thing makes me smile—here's one he memorably didn't get:
Butler absolutely did not "Win" the ball here, right guys? Kevin Hart is a full foot shorter than Butler.
It was an unconventional decision, but Butler's new band also performed during the halftime show. Their material sounds fun-kay!
Throughout the entire game, Butler constantly called for the ball. He was trigger happy early but settled down and parked in the paint, boxing out smaller opponents while screaming for the ball. I should have synced this one to "No Cars Go", what with the obnoxious HEY! here:
Butler tallied 10 rebounds and 8 points, just two shy of a double-double, and ended up 4/9 from the field.
TAKEAWAYS
Butler is a big guy who holds down the paint and plays with good motor. He knows how to move without the ball—often, Butler set picks and rolled to the rim, cutting so that the guards could find him, earning "buckets beyond buckets." When he was drifting outside the paint, he was much less effective. While Butler rotated on defense and always gave the West some bulk when he was in, there's probably no way he could stay in front of a hypothetical blogger whose game is basically music journalism's closest thing to James Harden. Butler also managed not to kill anybody in the game, which was most definitely a threat going in. All in all, a solid effort—Butler anchored the paint, finished at the rim and made the winning team better, creating space for shooters and guards to collect easy buckets.