Greg Cote: Miami Super Sunday, 4-pack on NFL Draft, enough on Wrexham & more in new Hot Button Top 10

GREG COTE’S HOT BUTTON TOP 10 (APRIL 30): WHAT IN SPORTS HAS GRABBED US LATELY: Our Sunday Hot Button Top 10 feature had been blog-only but with our blog now retired it moved, re-imagined, to online-only. HB10 means what’s on our minds, locally and nationally, but from a Miami perspective and accentuating stuff that’s major, offbeat, damnable, funny or worth needling as the sports week just past pivots to the week ahead. Welcome to the 14th edition of the new HB10:

1. HEAT: Super Sunday! Can Jimmy stay en fuego in Game 1 at Knicks?: No. 8-seed Miami vanquished No. 1 Milwaukee in first round, but will it dare -- and err -- to take No. 5 New York lightly? Can Jimmy Butler keep his scorchin’-hot postseason going? This was a great and most bitter rivalry back in the day with four straight NBA playoff duels in 1997-2000. Infamously there was the ‘98 brawl in which Knicks coach Jeff Van Gundy ran onto the court and wrapped himself around Heat star Alonzo Mourning’s leg in the midst of the melee. “At that time,” recalled Zo in 2022, “he felt like a piece of gum on my shoe.” Everything is different and the vitriol isn’t nearly as big now. Only the stakes are.

2. PANTHERS: Super Sunday 2.0! Tkachuk leads upset bid in Game 7 at Boston: Florida’s 7-5 win staving off elimination against Boston Friday led by Matthew Tkachuk’s two goals was epic. Now it all ramps even higher for Game 7 Sunday back in Beantown. Can a No. 8 seed once down 3-1 with a third game in a row and oust the mighty team that had the greatest regular-season in NHL history? Sports doesn’t get much better.

3. NFL: Four things about King Sport’s Draft: 1) Did anybody but me get perverse delight in the cruel cameras so frequently chronicling Will Levis sitting there crestfallen during his free-fall? 2) It was only 3-2, but my Mock Draft got one more right (exact player to exact team) than did ESPN’s Mel Kiper Jr. 3) Can’t even fake much interest in a Dolphins draft led by a 51st overall pick. And 4) Sorry, NFL, but we don’t need Kids Representing Good Causes announcing first round picks. (Yes ... I’m that guy, apparently.)

4. NFL: Jackson/Ravens, Rodgers/Jets tie the knot -- finally!: It seemed to take forever (X2) but Baltimore and QB Lamar Jackson finally agreed to a contract extension and Green Bay at last consummated the trade to send Aaron Rodgers to NYJ. Jackson signed a signed a 5 year, $260 million deal with $185M guaranteed, an average of $52 mill per year. The Jets inherit Rodgers’ 3 year, $150.8 million deal (all guaranteed), averaging $50.3M per. Both moves underline how the AFC has become way-dominant in star quarterbacks. (Miami picked a good time to trade for Jalen Ramsey.) Intriguing sidelight: Should the Jets or Rodgers struggle, how will the thin-skinned Rodgers handle the notorious Big Apple press after going from the NFL’s smallest media market to its largest?

5. BASKETBALL: Team USA gets lucky draw for upcoming World Cup: Team USA, led for the first time by Warriors coach Steve Kerr, drew a favorable draw in its hopes of recapturing the FIBA World Cup in international hoops. The 32-nation event is August 25-September 10 hosted by Philippines, Indonesia and Japan. The NBA star-led Americans will open Group C pool play in Manila vs. New Zealand, then play Greece (and Giannis Antetokounmpo) and then Jordan -- the country, not Michael. The big break? The U.S. won’t face defending champion Spain or NBA-infused Canada until the semifinals.

6. SOCCER: Yeah, Wrexham is a nice story, but...: Solely because it is owned by American actors Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney, Welsh soccer club Wrexham gained inordinate attention for recently earning promotion in English soccer. A casual observer might have thought Wrexham was now in league with (literally) the likes of Manchester City and Liverpool. Sorry, folks. Wrexham earned promotion from the National League to League Two -- bumping up from the fifth to the fourth in U.K. football’s tier system. They still are behind the Premier League, Championship and League One levels. It’s akin to a minor-league baseball player being promoted from Rookie League to Class A. There are Wrexhams every year over there. But the others don’t have famous actors who made a TV show out of their hobby.

7. MLB: Braves get cease-and-desist on “big hat” celebration: Popular with fans, the Atlanta Braves have been celebrating home runs with an oversized hat given the HR hitter. Now MLB has ordered the Braves to stop after pushback from New Era, which makes the sport’s official on-field cap. Too bad. The big hats were funny. Then again, I’ve been a funny-big-hat fan ever since SNL’s Jeopardy! parody featured Norm MacDonald in an outlandishly large yellow foam cowboy hat in his Burt Reynolds impression as the snarky Turd Ferguson.

8. SOCCER: Lopsided semifinals in UEFA Champions League: Manchester City and Real Madrid are betting favorites in that order to win it all -- although they are meeting in one semifinal starting with the first leg May 9. Either would be the money pick over the other semifinal survivor, Inter Milan vs. AC Milan starting May 10. Real has won 14 Champs League titles, AC Milan 7 and Inter 3, with Man City the pick to get off the schneid and bring home its first trophy.

9. WWE: Miami’s Cavinder twins quit hoops for pro wrestling: The Cavinder twins (Hanna and Haley) leaving Miami Hurricanes basketball after one season for the cartoon glamour of WWE wrestling should have surprised nobody. In 2021, when the NCAA’s NIL rule kicked in the Tik-Tok stars became an early beneficiary and signed a deal then with WWE’s “Next in Line” program, which grooms college athletes for a career in the ring. “We love the WWE, their fanbase and the fitness side of it that fits Hanna and I’s brand,” Haley said. (Ah, yes. All about the brand!) The Cavinders have begun training at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando. I blame Jake Paul for all of this.

10. WILDLIFE: Jim Irsay (!) helps free killer whale from captivity: Lolita the beloved killer whale will be freed from many years of captivity as an attraction at Miami Seaquarium and returned to an “open ocean sanctuary,” thanks to unlikely hero Jim Irsay, the Indianapolis Colts owner whose “sizable donation” is making it happen. Irsay has had less success freeing another beloved attraction from many years of retirement and returning Andrew Luck the killer quarterback to its home field.

Other most recent stuff from me: Longshot Panthers beat Bruins again, force Game 7 in Boston / Butler does it again as No. 8 Heat bounces Bucks to advance in playoffs / Grit & valor: Panthers OT win in Boston forces Game 6 / 32nd Herald NFL Mock Draft: Blitz on QBs and a Gator to Dolphins at 51 / 40 years later, Marino reflects on ’83 draft, Dolphins career, legacy -- and what’s missing / Butler ‘s 56-point game for the ages gives Heat 3-1 lead on Bucks / Home ice is thin ice as Panthers fall 3-1 down to Bruins / Previous Hot Button Top 10 from last Sunday / And my latest podcast: