Former Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo is set to be honored by the Dallas Mavericks in their season finale on Tuesday night.
Per ESPN’s Marc Stein, Romo will be in uniform and on the bench for the entirety of the game. Since the team has a roster spot available, the quarterback-turned-analyst will essentially be a Maverick for a day.
Oddly enough, Romo and former NBA player Caron Butler both played basketball on the All-Racine County team in Wisconsin back in 1998.
Therefore, Butler has first-hand knowledge of what Romo can do on the basketball court, and his analysis might surprise you.
"Believe it or not, man, when we were in the prime of our careers, I used to always talk about it: (Romo) could have easily been a professional basketball player," Butler told ESPN. "And a lot of people were like, 'Man, you're crazy for saying that,' but Tony could shoot. He could handle the ball. He had a knack for scoring, man, he really did.’”
According to ESPN, Butler attended Racine Park High School, averaging 24 points and 11 rebounds before he moved on to UConn and a 14-year NBA career with nine different teams. Romo played at Burlington High School and put up 24.3 points, 8.8 rebounds and 4.7 assists per game before attending Eastern Illinois and enjoying a 14-year career with the Cowboys.
Therefore, he could ball back in the day.
In fact, he was a Jack of all trades, also showing off his skills on the golf course at an early age.
"He was a really good football player, obviously, being a quarterback. He was great at golf. And he was really good at basketball. Obviously it worked out for him with the football, but I wouldn't have been surprised if he would have made it playing basketball. He had a great feel for the game, man. And it's not surprising. Golf is a cerebral game; you gotta have that mental component to conquer the course. And then football's the same thing; you gotta be able to think on the fly and do all these things. And then basketball, I thought, all those components worked together."
As of right now, it seems as though Romo will sit on the bench for the duration of the game, but since Mark Cuban is at the helm of the Mavericks, you never know what might happen.
Butler thinks this is the start of a new era in which teams that are out of contention will spice things up a bit, inviting stars from other sports to suit up.
"Wouldn't it be special to see one of your favorite athletes running up and down on the basketball court who played football? Out of the spirit of competition, nothing's really at stake at right now. So now we're doing what we do best [in the NBA] and that's entertainment," Butler said. "To see Tony Romo on the sideline and Mark Cuban and that interaction and a future Hall of Famer in Dirk [Nowitzki] as his teammate ... it's going to be special, man. And I wouldn't be surprised -- this is a copycat game -- so I wouldn't be surprised if you see it happen going forward with other teams that's out of [playoff contention] and want to add a little more to it.”
The 32-48 Mavericks will host the Nuggets on Tuesday at 8:30 p.m. EST. Denver was also just eliminated from playoff contention, so the stage is set for Romo to possibly take the court at some point in what is essentially a meaningless game in the win-loss column.