Caleb Martin, the unexpected hero of the Heat and an opportunity thanks to rapper J. Cole

Two years ago, Caleb Martin was desperately looking for his place in basketball. Last morning, however, he became the main protagonist of one of the greatest feats of the NBA playoffs: the Heat, the eighth place in the regular season in the East, will play the Finals against the Nuggets.

That, that an eighth reached the top, only happened once, in 1999 with the Knicks. Indisputably led by Jimmy Butler on the track and Erick Spoelstra on the bench, the Miami men have been overcoming an unusual gymkhana until the seventh at the TD Garden in Boston, where they prevented the Celtics (84-103) from breaking tradition: never, in the previous 150, no one had gone 0-3. By the way, they avenged the defeat last year, where Butler himself had missed the decisive basket in the seventh, this time in Florida.

If there is one thing about the set designed by Pat Riley in the offices, it is a unique ability to excel. In that, in inventing heroes, the one who was a legendary showtime technician is unique. And Caleb Martin, who scored 26 points (11-for-16 shooting) and grabbed 10 rebounds in the seventh, is a case in point.. “I definitely reflect on where I started and the journey I took to get here,” pronounced the escort, dressed in a rapper look, after the triumph. No one will ever be able to forget his series against the Celtics: he scored 135 points (19.2 average), a record for any undrafted player in a Conference Finals.

Because a lot has to do with his history of opportunities taken advantage of precisely with rap. In August 2021, Caleb's career, always hand in hand with his twin brother Cody (they played together at NC State University and later in Nevada), seemed to hit an insurmountable wall.. After two lackluster seasons with the Hornets, the franchise managed by Michael Jordan decided to put an end to his contract.

That summer of working alone in search of another opportunity was going to be key for Martin.. Born in Mocksville, North Carolina, in 1995, he was a frequent visitor to nearby Fayetteville, where he shared workouts with famed rapper J. Cole, with whom he also became friends. So, the singer, who came to try to make the jump to the NBA and even played in the Basketball Africa League with the Rwandan Patriots team, pulled influences. “He came up to me and said he had a very, very talented guy who was playing very well in North Carolina.. Martin had just been cut by the Hornets and we were trying to improve our team,” Caron Butler, assistant coach of the Heat, revealed about that decisive game.

raised in a caravan

So, the invitation to a training session, an opportunity seized and a career launched. His first season under Spoelstra, 9.2 points and 3.8 rebounds. The second, the current one, at last with a fetén contract (20 million for three seasons), 49 games as a starter and some playoffs to remember (42.2% in triples), taking advantage of the absences due to injury of Tyler Herro and Victor Oladipo. Especially against the Celtics, whom he had already warned with 25 points in the second game. “It's a bit of a strange feeling because despite how happy and grateful I am, I understand that we have four more games.. The work is not done. We didn't go through what we went through in the entire regular season and my entire personal journey to stop here.. We have four more,” repeated Caleb, who did not enjoy an easy childhood either.. His mother, Jenny Bennett, raised her three children alone, living in a trailer in Cooleemee, North Carolina.. They slept in the same bed and often everything was infested with insects, according to what he told years ago in a report in the Reno Gazette Journal.

On the unexpected hero, who had also been a promise of American football in his youth, the spotlights rested on a team that began the postseason by losing the first game of the play-in and that has shattered all predictions by consecutively tearing down the Bucks of Antetokounmpo, the Knicks and the Celtics, no home field advantage series. “I think this sheds a lot of light on how resilient our group is,” Martin said.. “How we are mentally engaged. No matter the seasons that have passed. We've been talking about how the regular season has been preparing us for these moments, and I think it comes full circle.”. The Heat will play, against Nikola Jokic's Nuggets, the seventh Finals in their history. They were champions in 2006, 2012 and 2013.

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