A rare feat: Heat represented by multiple players on All-Defensive teams in the same season

The Miami Heat is well represented on this season’s NBA All-Defensive teams.

Center Bam Adebayo, who finished fourth in the Defensive Player of the Year voting this season, made the NBA All-Defensive Second Team. Wing Jimmy Butler also earned a spot on the Second Team.

It marks just the second time in franchise history that multiple Heat players have been voted onto the league’s All-Defensive teams in the same season. The only other time it happened was in 1998-99 when Alonzo Mourning was selected for the First Team and P.J. Brown was named to the Second Team.

The NBA’s All-Defensive teams were announced Monday night.

The All-Defensive First Team included Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo and Jrue Holiday, Philadelphia’s Ben Simmons, Golden State’s Draymond Green and Utah’s Rudy Gobert.

The All-Defensive Second Team included Adebayo, Butler, Philadelphia’s Matisse Thybulle, Los Angeles’ Kawhi Leonard and Philadelphia’s Joel Embiid.

Players were awarded two points for each vote to the NBA All-Defensive First Team and one point for each vote to the Second Team in the media balloting that was concluded at the end of the regular season and prior to the start of the playoffs. Voters selected two guards, two forwards and one center for each team, choosing players at the position they play regularly.

Adebayo, who was picked for the All-Defensive Second Team for the second straight season after making the cut for the first time in his career last season, received 37 First-Team votes and 37 Second-Team votes. He’s known on the defensive end for his unique versatility and ability to effectively switch onto every position on the court at 6-9 and 255 pounds.

Butler, who was selected to the All-Defensive Second Team for the fifth time in his career but has still never made the First Team, also received 37 First-Team votes and 37 Second-Team votes. He became the first Heat player in franchise history to finish as the NBA’s steals leader this past season, averaging a league-leading 2.1 steals per game.

Adebayo, 23, and Butler, 31, were the only Heat players to receive votes. Among the players who were selected to the Second Team, Adebayo and Butler received the most First-Team votes.

The only Heat players in franchise history who have been selected for the NBA’s All-Defensive First Team are Mourning (1998-99, 1999-00) and LeBron James (2010-11, 2011-12, 2012-13).

Adebayo (also in 2019-20) and Butler join previous Heat second-team All-Defensive selections Brown (1996-97, 1998-99), Bruce Bowen (2000-01), Dwyane Wade (2004-05, 2008-09, 2009-10), James (2013-14) and Hassan Whiteside (2015-16).