It looks like Isaiah Thomas did his part to convince Jimmy Butler that playing for the Celtics is awesome

In my draft lottery preview yesterday, I made a point to mention that in addition to Isaiah Thomas representing the Celtics, Jimmy Butler would be in attendance for the Bulls.  Given Thomas' efforts to recruit guys to Boston at the All-Star game, it seemed only natural that he might attempt to sell Butler on the Celtics as well.  A few minutes before last night's lottery TV coverage began, the NBA sent out this tweet:


To be clear upfront, Butler is not a free agent.  However, he's already good friends with former Marquette teammate Jae Crowder and it obviously can't hurt Boston's chances of trading for him if he's excited about coming here.

Now, let's break down this photo a bit: Thomas is sitting back, relaxed, with a smile on his face and his cell phone sitting next to him.  He looks like a CEO.  Butler, on the other hand, is leaning forward on the edge of his seat, as if he's hanging on to every word coming out of Isaiah's mouth.

It reminds me of the bus ride scene in Bull Durham when Crash tells the minor-league kids that he's played in the majors before (at the 1:16 mark, and honestly when this analogy first popped into my head it hadn't even occurred to me yet that Butler is also a Bull--perfect):





When asked about his recruiting pitch afterwards, here's what Thomas had to say:


Isaiah isn't allowed to talk about acquiring guys on other teams, but clearly it sounds like he wanted to.  Now it's on Danny Ainge to try to make this happen.




Follow Mark Van Deusen on Twitter @LucidSportsFan
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