Here's a look at the equipment Nick Taylor used to become the first Canadian since 1954 to win the Canadian Open. 

DRIVER: Titleist TSi3 (10 degrees)

FAIRWAY WOODS: Titleist TSi2 (15 degrees); TaylorMade SIM2 Max (18)

HYBRID: Titleist TSR2 (21 degrees)

IRONS: Titleist T200 (4), T100 (5-9)

WEDGES: Titleist Vokey Design SM8 (46, 54 degrees), WedgeWorks (58 degrees)

PUTTER: TaylorMade Spider Tour Red

BALL: Titleist Pro V1x

It was the shot heard 'round Canada.

Looking to end his country's nearly 70-year drought at its national championship, the RBC Canadian Open, Nick Taylor found himself locked in a playoff battle with England's Tommy Fleetwood on Sunday evening at Oakdale Golf and Country Club outside of Toronto. And on the fourth playoff hole, the par-5 18th, Taylor got up and down from 221 yards – and from a divot in the first cut – sinking a 72-foot eagle putt to seal the dramatic victory and become the first Canadian to win the Canadian Open since Pat Fletcher in 1954.

"I can't even describe it," Taylor said afterward. "This is the most incredible feeling."

Later in his presser, Taylor, who played No. 18 four times Sunday and did so in 4 under, went through the winning putt in detail.

"It was long, obviously," he said. "We knew the finish line would be the best way to putt it. We knew about the last 15 feet because I had that in the second playoff hole. With the rain coming down, the slope, obviously, we knew it was going to be slow. It's so easy to leave that putt 10 feet short from how far I was. To get it there was, obviously, a bit of a surprise, honestly. But I felt we've learned a bit from that second putt that we knew generally what it was going to do. There's a lot of luck for that to go in the hole. The speed is all I was thinking about. Tommy probably had about 12 feet and I expected him to make it almost like the first playoff hole. So I was trying to get as close as I could to essentially know that he had to make or miss to keep going. So for that to drop, it was a huge surprise but an amazing one."

He then was asked about the putt potentially going down as one of Canada's top where-were-you moments, alongside Joe Carter's home run to win the 1993 World Series for the Blue Jays and Sidney Crosby's goal to win 2010 Olympic hockey gold for Team Canada.

"I don't even know how to answer that," Taylor said, "because those other moments were for me, like where was I when Sidney Crosby scored? I was watching with college buddies down in Seattle. That's a really hard question to answer because to think that I'm the person that people are thinking about is kind of breathtaking.

"So, yeah, I think it will take time to realize kind of what's just happened."

TORONTO — Nick Taylor became the first Canadian in 69 years to win his national open, holing a 72-foot eagle putt on the fourth playoff hole to beat Tommy Fleetwood in the RBC Canadian Open on Sunday.

Taylor tossed his putter into the air and jumped into the arms of his caddie after the longest made putt of his PGA Tour career, and fellow Canadian players Mike Weir, Corey Conners and Adam Hadwin were among those who ran out to the green to congratulate him.

“I’m speechless. This is for all the guys that are here. This is for my family at home,” Taylor said with tears in his eyes. “This is the most incredible feeling.”

The last player from Canada to win the Canadian Open was Pat Fletcher in 1954 at Point Grey in Vancouver. Fletcher was born in England; Carl Keffer had been the only Canadian-born champion, winning in 1909 and 1914.

With galleries cheering his every move and even serenading him with “O Canada” on one tee box, Taylor curled in an 11-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole to finish at 17-under 271 at Oakdale, walking backward with his fist raised as the ball dropped into the cup. He shot a 6-under 66 Sunday.

Fleetwood needed a birdie on the reachable par 5 to win in regulation, but he missed his tee shot right, laid up into an awkward lie in the right rough and two-putted for par to force the playoff in rainy conditions.

The players traded birdies their first time playing No. 18 in the playoff. They both parred 18 and the par-3 ninth before heading back to 18.

Taylor reached the green in two while Fleetwood laid up after his drive found a fairway bunker. Fleetwood gave himself an opportunity for birdie but didn’t need to putt after Taylor’s uphill eagle putt from the front of the green hit the flagstick and dropped.

The 35-year-old Taylor, who was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and grew up in Abbotsford, British Columbia, won for the third time on Tour. He shot 75 in Thursday’s opening round but rallied with a 67 on Friday to make the cut, then shot 63 on Saturday to begin the final round three shots behind leader C.T. Pan.

Two-time defending champion Rory McIlroy, two shots back of Pan entering the final round, closed with a 72 and finished in a tie for ninth, five shots back.

Fleetwood, a two-time Ryder Cup player from England and a six-time winner on the DP World Tour, remains winless on Tour.

Tyrrell Hatton (64), Aaron Rai (69) and Pan (70) finished one shot out of the playoff.

Nick Taylor defeated Tommy Fleetwood in a playoff Sunday to win the RBC Canadian Open, becoming the first Canadian to win the event since 1954. 

Taylor took home $1.62 million, while Fleetwood made $981,000.

Here are the full purse and FedExCup breakdowns for those who made the cut at Oakdale. 

MADISON, Wis. — Steve Stricker’s latest win on the PGA Tour Champions felt as big as any in his career, closing with a 3-under 69 on Sunday to win his American Family Insurance Championship in his native Wisconsin for his fourth title this year.

Stricker already has six Champions majors, including the two played this year. This tournament was one his foundation began before he turned 50, and he finally got it.

Tied with Paul Broadhurst to start the final round, Stricker seized control with two straight birdies to close out the front nine at University Ridge Golf Club.

He won by five shots over Broadhurst (74) and Steve Alker (70).

“This one definitely means more than probably any tournament throughout my whole career,” Stricker said.

His other big win in Wisconsin was as Ryder Cup captain two years ago at Whistling Straits, when the Americans beat Europe by a record margin.

Stricker now has 15 wins on the PGA Champions, and he gets another crack before the home crowd in the U.S. Senior Open at SentryWorld in Stevens Point.

Stricker lost in a playoff at the American Family Insurance Championship in 2019.

“I had a couple opportunities the first six years and didn’t finish the job on Sunday,” he said. “Today was a difficult day not only with the weather but just fighting my nerves and the emotions of trying to win a golf tournament, especially here in Madison.

“Yeah, this one’s pretty sweet.”

The final round featured a nearly 30-degree drop in temperatures. Stricker started both nines with a bogey but otherwise never gave anyone much of a chance.

Stricker expanded his lead in the Charles Schwab Cup. Led by his four wins, he has not finished worse than a tie for eighth in his 11 tournaments on the PGA Tour Champions this year.

SEATTLE -- In an emotional ceremony that lasted approximately three hours after the Seattle Storm's 71-65 loss to the Washington Mystics on Sunday, Sue Bird saw her No. 10 Storm jersey raised to the Climate Pledge Arena rafters.

"I've got to give my sister [Jen] the 'line of the night' award," Bird quipped to the media afterward. "I walked in the back with my family. I was like, 'Was that too long?' My sister was like, 'You played here for 21 years. They can listen to you for an hour.'"

Actually, Bird's speech was more than an hour and a half, as she apologized for during the midst of it. But there was understandably a lot of ground to cover for a player who retired last fall as the WNBA's all-time leader in games, minutes and assists during a career that spanned more than two decades -- all of it played in Seattle.

"I didn't anticipate it being that long, but the truth is, I don't know that I could have taken anything out," Bird said. "That's what this has meant to me. It was just so important for me to say names and point people out and tell them what they've meant. I'm already thinking of things I wish I would have said."

Before Bird took center stage, she heard from a variety of key figures in her career about the impact she had on them. Bird's fiancée, USWNT star Megan Rapinoe, co-hosted the event with Seattle rapper Macklemore.

Storm co-owners Lisa Brummel and Ginny Gilder both spoke, followed by former teammates Swin Cash and Lauren Jackson, Bird's agent at Wasserman -- Lindsay Kagawa Colas -- and former coach Jenny Boucek.

Jackson, who flew in from Australia with eldest son Harry specifically for the event, called Bird "the true GOAT" with the help of AI chatbot ChatGPT, which helpfully pointed out that Bird's position of point guard is the most important in basketball. Given her four WNBA championships and five Olympic gold medals, plus a record 13 All-Star appearances, there's little debate that Bird retired as the greatest point guard in women's basketball history.

"Sue's legacy to Seattle, to [USA Basketball], to the WNBA and to our beautiful game is one that I don't think will ever be matched by anyone," Jackson said.

As an active player, Bird stole the show with her speech at the retirement of Jackson's No. 15 jersey in 2016. Now the pick-and-roll partners, who played together from Bird's selection as the No. 1 draft pick in 2002 through injuries forcing Jackson's retirement from the WNBA after the 2012 season -- winning a pair of titles -- are reunited.

"The one thing I really wish I would have said -- it just kind of escaped me -- was how amazing it's going to be in the rafters, yes, but it's going to be even more amazing to be next to her," Bird said.

After Jackson, Rapinoe took the microphone to introduce her fiancée, describing her as "simply the best" while the iconic anthem by the late Tina Turner played.

Then Bird went through her entire career to pay tribute to everyone who played a part in her journey, from being scared to pick up the ball before her first youth soccer game as a child to walking off the court last September with fans chanting, "Thank you, Sue!" following her final WNBA game.

"I wanted to make sure that I thanked those I wanted to thank," Bird said, "because it does feel like the last time -- obviously not the last time I'll be in the building or the last time I'll be around or anything like that -- but the last time as a player. Now I'll just be a former player."

Bird discussed her family, former teammates and coaches -- many of whom were in attendance -- and the organization, including the group of local owners that kept the Storm in Seattle as an independent WNBA franchise after the team was sold with the NBA's SuperSonics to the group that moved them to Oklahoma City.

From the poem "Ulysses" by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Bird quoted the line "I am a part of all that I have met" to describe her relationship with those groups.

The speech culminated with a tribute to Storm fans, a group that has swelled tremendously over the past decades, thanks in large part to Bird's play and connection with the community. The largest crowd in franchise history packed Climate Pledge in August for Bird's final regular-season home game, while Sunday's attendance of 13,000-plus filled the lower bowl and reached into the upper deck.

"It almost has nothing to do with basketball in so many ways," Bird said. "The connection I have with the city, with the fans, with this franchise and, again, like I said out there, what they've given me. I think a lot was made of what I've given them in my final year, but I really wanted to emphasize what all the people I named have given me and what I'll take."

Coming nine months after her final WNBA game, Bird compared this weekend's events -- which also included raising a flag with her name on the Space Needle on Friday and the unveiling of a mural of her likeness in downtown Seattle -- to "a period" on her career representing the end of the sentence and moving on to the next stage of her life.

And maybe, just maybe, having her jersey retired will stop people asking whether Bird might come back.

"I will forever miss it, and that's OK," she said. "I think some people try to avoid missing it when they're in my seat up here, and the reality is I'm always going to miss it. There's going to be be days -- tomorrow, a year from now, five years from now -- where I'll probably even cry because I miss it and get emotional because I miss it. That's just a part of it."

JERSEY CITY, N.J. -- When running back Saquon Barkley was asked at his AMPT football camp how optimistic he was about getting a long-term deal from the New York Giants this year, he paused, seemingly unsure what was the appropriate answer. Perhaps it was an indication that he's not ecstatic with how the negotiations have gone to this point.

"I don't know. I don't know," Barkley said of his optimism level.

The Giants used the franchise tag on Barkley earlier this year. He has not signed it yet, which keeps him away from the facility this spring. New York has mandatory minicamp on Tuesday and Wednesday, and Barkley can't and won't attend.

The two sides have until July 17 to agree on a new deal. That does provide Barkley some hope that there is time.

"I think they're open to talking. I'm open to talking," Barkley said. "I think at the end of the day, if you really break it down and look at it as a whole, there is no rush. There is still time on the table to get to July 17. July 17 is not tomorrow. It's not in a week. That is how I look at it. Maybe that is the naïve way to look at it, I could be completely wrong. But for me, that's how I look at it. I could be completely wrong. Hopefully. I trust in the Giants that we could get something done."

If they're unable to find a middle ground, the veteran running back said he will at least contemplate sitting out the season.

"That comes up in the conversation if something doesn't get done by July 17," said Barkley, who also specified that is not something he's thought about much yet.

Barkley later added of the entire contract situation: "At the end of the day, it's all about respect. That is really what it is."

The Giants had an offer out to Barkley earlier in the year that could've been worth close to $14 million per season, sources have told ESPN. Barkley and his team turned it down.

The perception of this has left a negative taste in Barkley's mouth. He said he believes he's being perceived as "greedy," despite making it clear that he was never interested in resetting the running back market and wants to remain a Giant for life.

"Me getting tagged, was I upset about it? Nobody wants to get tagged," Barkley said. "To sit here and say I was frustrated, I was mad, I was upset, what really got me upset was the stories that got leaked out and how misleading they were and how untruthful they were.

"I feel it was trying to paint a narrative of me, paint a picture of me that is not even true. Not even close to being the truth."

Trying to negotiate a new contract has been an eye-opening process.

"Just come to the reality that this is a business," Barkley said.

When asked specifically if he was talking about the lack of guaranteed money in those deals not being mentioned, Barkley told the reporters present at Caven Point Field -- where 150 inner-city youth were treated to a free camp -- they should read between the lines. That the devil is in the details.

In the meantime, if Barkley plays on the franchise tag, he will make $10.1 million this season.

Getting paid at the running back position has become increasingly more difficult in recent years. The running back market cratered this offseason, in part because three backs -- Barkley, Las Vegas' Josh Jacobs and Dallas' Tony Pollard -- were all tagged.

But Barkley sees his value to the Giants, who he noted were one-dimensional running the football the first half of last season. He had at least 70 yards rushing in eight of the first nine games.

Barkley led the team with 1,312 yards rushing, 10 touchdowns and tied for the team lead with 57 receptions. He's also been the face of the franchise since arriving as the No. 2 overall draft pick in 2018.

"I see [the running back market]. I'm aware of that," Barkley said. "I feel like I'm more than that. I feel we finally got to a place where we're a successful team. We got to start winning games, and I was a big part of that."

Barkley remains one of the most respected players on the Giants. He's a team captain who demands respect from his peers. Among those who supported Barkley's camp and were on hand Sunday evening were recently paid defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence, wide receiver Isaiah Hodgins, quarterback Tyrod Taylor, new teammate Darren Waller, linebacker Micah McFadden, cornerbacks Darnay Holmes and Amani Oruwariye and even defensive coordinator Wink Martindale.

The Giants (9-7-1) reached the playoffs and won a postseason game this past season for the first time in Barkley's professional career.

Barkley told ESPN's Adam Schefter his goal remains being "compensated respectfully based on my contributions to the team on the field and in the locker room."

"I've been in talks with the Giants throughout the offseason," Barkley said. "If at some point there's a deal that is fair to both sides on the table, I'll be ready to sign."

TORONTO -- Nick Taylor tossed his putter into the air and jumped into the arms of caddie Dave Markle after he made a 72-foot eagle putt to become the first Canadian in 69 years to win his national open, and he doesn't remember any of it.

"I blacked out when that ball went in with Dave," Taylor said. "So I'm curious to watch that, what we did."

Few who witnessed it will ever forget.

Taylor delivered a signature moment in Canadian sports when his uphill, left-to-right-breaking putt -- the longest made putt of his PGA Tour career -- hit the flagstick and dropped on the fourth hole of a playoff against Tommy Fleetwood for the RBC Canadian Open title.

"It's a tournament that we've circled on our calendar since probably junior golf," Taylor said. "To kind of break that curse, if you want to call it, is -- I'm pretty speechless. I don't think it's going to sink in for quite some time what happened today."

Fellow Canadian players Mike Weir, Corey Conners and Adam Hadwin were among those who ran onto the green to congratulate him. Hadwin, Taylor's close friend, was tackled by a security guard while spraying champagne from a bottle.

The last player from Canada to win the Canadian Open was Pat Fletcher in 1954 at Point Grey in Vancouver. Fletcher was born in England; Karl Keffer had been the only Canadian-born champion, winning in 1909 and 1914. Weir lost a playoff to Vijay Singh in 2004.

"I've looked up to Mike Weir and watched him play golf for so long, and for him to be there was special," Taylor said.

With galleries cheering his every move and even serenading him with "O Canada" on one tee box, Taylor curled in an 11-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole to finish at 17-under 271 at Oakdale, walking backward with his fist raised as the ball dropped into the cup. He shot a 6-under 66 on Sunday.

"It was the most incredible atmosphere I've ever been a part of and it's not even close. I think even walking the first tee today, walking to the first green, there's ovations on every single tee and green," Taylor said. "When Tommy would miss and they would cheer, I kind of felt bad for him. But I knew just how pumped they were and they were trying to put every ounce of energy into it to help me pull it through."

Fleetwood needed a birdie on the reachable par 5 to win in regulation, but he missed his tee shot right, laid up into an awkward lie in the right rough and two-putted for par to force the playoff in rainy conditions.

The players traded birdies on their first time playing No. 18 in the playoff. They both parred 18 and the par-3 ninth before heading back to 18.

Taylor's tee shot found a divot in the fairway, but he hit his second shot 221 yards to the front of the green, while Fleetwood laid up after his drive found a fairway bunker. Fleetwood hit his third shot to 12 feet, but didn't need to putt after Taylor's eagle putt hit the flagstick and dropped.

Taylor expected Fleetwood to make his putt and focused on getting his lengthy try to the hole.

"The speed is all I was thinking about," Taylor said. "For that to drop is -- it was a huge surprise but an amazing one."

Fans swarmed toward the green, and Hadwin -- who like Taylor grew up in Abbotsford, British Columbia -- got leveled amid the chaos. He said had so much adrenaline that the tackle didn't faze him.

"It's incredible. I mean, what do you say to one of the greatest moments of Canadian golf history?" Hadwin said. "I think we all predicted that this was going to happen.

"I'm not sure that any one of us predicted a 72-foot eagle putt ... to get it done, but what a way to go."

The 35-year-old Taylor, who was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, won for the third time on the PGA Tour. He shot 75 in Thursday's opening round but rallied with a 67 on Friday to make the cut, then shot 63 on Saturday to begin the final round 3 shots behind leader C.T. Pan.

"I was on the seventh hole, I remember, the first day, my 16th hole, with 10 feet for par. And made that. And birdied 8 and parred the last to kind of like somewhat be in the cut sight," Taylor said. "So to be standing there and then sitting here today is pretty remarkable, to be honest."

Taylor is the fourth Canadian to win on tour this season, joining Conners, Mackenzie Hughes and Adam Svensson.

Two-time defending champion Rory McIlroy, 2 shots back of Pan entering the final round, closed with a 72 and finished in a tie for ninth, 5 shots back.

Fleetwood, a two-time Ryder Cup player from England and a six-time winner on the European tour, remains winless on the PGA Tour.

"I played great today, even though I missed some chances, if you like, on those playoff holes," Fleetwood said. "Yeah, it was close. I just have to take the positives from it and start practicing tomorrow. I got a major next week. So can't dwell on it too much."

Tyrrell Hatton (64), Aaron Rai (69) and Pan (70) finished 1 shot out of the playoff.

DENVER -- On the eve of the biggest game in Denver Nuggets franchise history, coach Michael Malone had a message for his team.

Malone wants the Nuggets to turn the clock back to 2020 -- when they twice overcame a 3-1 series deficit in the Orlando bubble, first to the Utah Jazz in the first round and then to the LA Clippers in the conference semifinals. As the Nuggets try to win their first NBA championship in their 47th season Monday night against the Miami Heat, Malone wants his team to play with that same level of desperation -- despite the fact that this time around they hold a 3-1 advantage, instead of being down in the series.

"My biggest concern going into any close-out game is human nature and fighting against that," Malone said Sunday ahead of Game 5. "Most teams, when you're up 3-1, they come up for air. They relax and they just kind of take it for granted that, oh, we're going to win this.

"We know anything is possible [down 3-1]. That's why my message to our team was our approach has to be we are down 3-1. They are desperate. We have to be more desperate. They are hungry. We have to be hungrier."

The Nuggets lost their first close-out opportunity of this postseason in Game 4 at Minnesota in the first round. After that, they didn't waste their next elimination opportunities, closing out the Timberwolves in Game 5, beating the Phoenix Suns in Game 6 of the second round and sending the Los Angeles Lakers home in Game 4 of the Western Conference finals.

After winning two straight Finals games in Miami, Nikola Jokic said the Nuggets were zeroed in during their practice in Denver.

"We are going to approach it as a must-win game," Jokic said Sunday. "I know it's a big opportunity, and I think everybody knows. By reflection of the practice today, how everybody was locked in, I think we are going to be ready."

History is on the Nuggets' side: Of the 36 teams to go up 3-1 in the NBA Finals, only one -- the 2016 Golden State Warriors -- has blown a 3-1 lead.

Still, Denver has never been in this position. The Nuggets have gone 46 seasons without a title, the most prior to winning a championship in NBA history, according to ESPN Stats & Information research. The 2016 Cleveland Cavaliers snapped a 45-season drought when they came back to beat those Warriors in the 2016 NBA Finals.

But Jamal Murray has long believed that Denver's championship time would come. Injuries to Murray and Michael Porter Jr. have derailed the Nuggets since reaching the Western Conference finals in the Orlando bubble.

Now healthy, a confident Murray said the Nuggets are ready to win the title.

"It's long before we made it here that I thought this was going to happen," Murray said. "I had a belief of being in the playoffs before, having the experience, seeing the team and the chemistry grow, having the same core my whole career, that's when I saw it. That's when I believed it.

"To be here just kind of rounds it out and shows that when we are given the right circumstances and everybody healthy, God willing, we can do it. When we're playing our best basketball, we are a very hard team to stop."

The Nuggets have handled every challenge that has come their way this postseason. Now comes the final test -- closing out a Miami team that has repeatedly refused to allow its season to end.

Malone likes his chances if the Nuggets can rediscover that desperation that worked so well for them in the bubble before adversity hit the franchise.

"This team has been through a lot," Malone said. "The last two years, no Jamal Murray; last season, no Michael Porter. To get back healthy and add some key pieces, this is a team that has been tested before and I think is really built for this moment."

AS JIMMY BUTLER and Max Strus prepare for each Miami Heat game in the 2023 NBA Finals, they have a ritual. It's one that Butler has gone out of his way to cultivate with all his teammates. Sometimes, it's a handshake, sometimes it's a series of handshakes -- but in Strus' case, it's just one finger.

As Butler and Strus cross paths with one another on the floor, they fake like they're going to shake hands -- and then each raise their middle finger quickly, conveying, believe it or not, their mutual admiration. Like many others on the Heat, Strus has an origin story for the gesture.

"My first year here we played one-on-one a lot and it would get intense and we just started saying 'F You' to each other a lot," Strus told ESPN. "One time, he just didn't shake my hand and I flicked him off."

As he walked away after his loss, Butler turned back and witnessed the one-finger salute.

He loved it.

On a team full of players who are wired just like him, Strus earned even more of Butler's respect.

"Then that was our handshake," Strus said. "It's just our thing."

Not everyone was thrilled with such repeated obscenity.

"My agent [Mark Bartelstein] wasn't very keen of it," Strus said. "He was like, 'If you get fined for this, I'm not helping you out at all.' But nah, it's jokes. Everybody knows it's just our thing. My parents don't care, they were all right with it, but Mark wasn't too fond of it at first, but he gets it now."

They all do. Butler's meaningful routines with his teammates have built a deep camaraderie within the Heat -- a team-wide trust that will be put to the ultimate test, down 3-1, entering Monday's Game 5 in Denver (8:30 p.m. ET, ABC).

BUTLER IS A man of routine, especially before games. He goes through a carefully constructed ritual that includes personalized moments for almost everyone. Coaches and staff members usually get double fist pounds and a quick hug. Veterans Kevin Love and Kyle Lowry get a more formal handshake.

"We're all business," Love told ESPN. "It's like a straight-up contract shake."

Lowry, who landed with the Heat in 2021 in large part because of his relationship with Butler, echoed a similar story.

"It's me," Lowry told ESPN, while describing how the pair came up with their routine. "I'm just the professional. I'm the consummate professional. Just a handshake. Go out there and be professionals. I'm not cool enough to have a [more involved type of] handshake -- I don't have the memory like that."

Heat guard Gabe Vincent isn't sure exactly when he came up with his handshake with Butler.

"I think it was my rookie year," Vincent said. "It just kind of organically came to us."

When Butler sees Vincent, both men extend their right index and middle fingers and then touch them together for a couple seconds before bringing their fingers under their noses and then pounding their chests.

"It's kind of one of those things it just kind of clicks," Vincent said. "It just kind of happens. You're like, 'Oh, I guess we'll just keep doing this.' And here it is, some are more planned, some are more deliberate in that manner, but I don't think ours was."

Each interaction, no matter the time or effort involved, is another way for Butler to connect with his teammates.

"You're talking about the journeys that I've had with so many different guys," Butler told ESPN. "It's all about making us smile, keeping it free flowing, no pressure, you're not worried about nothing. Just two human beings, two brothers, two teammates, two guys that's in the trenches together and you just come up with something out of nowhere, but it's us."

TO MANY WITHIN the Heat locker room, Butler embodies all the characteristics that have come to define the organization's renowned Heat culture.

"I've learned so much from him," Heat guard Caleb Martin told ESPN. "More than anything how to go about and navigate my journey since I've been here, especially since I came on a two-way and -- with him it's crazy because he's just a reminder of where you can be at, even through the struggles."

Like some of the older veterans, guard Duncan Robinson gets a firm handshake from Butler on his way to the floor, but Martin's moment comes with a little more pizazz: A right-hand handshake, then a left-hand handshake and a nod -- with some words exchanged.

"We were just playing around, making some s--- up," Martin said. "And he was like, 'Yeah, that's gonna be our s--- now.' It just ended up being like that. It was just random."

Martin said the pair practiced the routine in the locker room and over time it stuck. To Martin, the handshake represents the journey he's been on to get to this moment, a similar one Butler originally blazed a path for over 12 years ago that many of his younger teammates are trying to follow.

"A lot of it has to do with heart with us," Martin said of what his handshake with Butler represents. "He says all the time, guys like me, Gabe, Max, obviously everybody down the line, but those undrafted guys for sure, you got to be the heart. You got to be the heartbeat of the team. And so we always tap twice and then dap up, so a lot of it, we're just tapping our heart."

NO PLAYER HAS more heart on the Heat than Udonis Haslem. The 43-year-old, 20-year Heat lifer has poured his professional soul into the organization and is usually the last person in line for Butler to connect with before he hits the floor for tipoff. Justifiably, he also has the most coordinated exchange with the Heat star.

It's a series of six handshakes, with some motivational words in between, words that Haslem wanted to keep between the pair.

"One, one-two, one-two-three taps," Haslem told ESPN. "It's just something we say with it. What we say matches the hand clap. It's in rhythm. I can't tell you what we say but what we say matches."

Heat center Bam Adebayo's handshake, for his part, comes with a unique reason why the pair chose their quick exchange.

"If you watch 'Finding Nemo' you'll figure it out," Adebayo told ESPN.

In the popular Disney movie, Crush the sea turtle tells his son, Squirt, to "give me some fin!" after the young turtle excitedly asks if his dad saw what he just did. Then Crush says, "Noggin" and points his head at the young turtle so they can bump heads in celebration.

Before each game, Butler and Adebayo mimic the celebration, slap the front of their forearms together and then touch heads. "You do it once," Adebayo said. "And then after a while it becomes a routine."

Love, who signed with the Heat in February and has been in the league for 15 seasons, knows it means something when a handshake sticks with Butler.

"When he got here he understood very quickly that it was all about one thing," Love said. "So for me it's an understanding of like he knows that he has to set the tone and lead us and if you see us, it's like OK, it's just that eye-to-eye understanding. Unspoken language."

HOURS BEFORE GAME 2 of the Eastern Conference finals and yet another one-finger salute with one of the players he grew up cheering for in the Chicago suburbs, Strus described what it felt like playing with Butler.

"He feeds us all confidence," Strus said. "The way he's been approaching every day, every game. We have all the confidence in the world we can win any game with him going like that. He's one of, if not the best player in the world right now and we're just happy to be a part of it."

Veteran center Cody Zeller, another member of the handshake team, summed things up in a similar fashion.

"It's a lot of fun," Zeller told ESPN of playing with Butler. "You just let him go to work. You just enjoy the show."

And that show begins well before tip.

"It's huge," Love explained of Butler's routine. "It's that common ground. I think for what we have within our locker room and how special the locker room has become, I think having that with every single player goes a long way because you want to have that extra effort, you want to go that extra mile for that teammate and you want to sacrifice for 'em."

"He's one of the most selfless stars I've ever been around," Vincent added. "I think in general. On the court, off the court, I think just the way that he's selfless -- he has a lot of belief in his teammates. He has no problem swinging an extra pass or just making the right read. I think he has a great respect for the game of basketball and wants to see it played purely."

He also wants the ties that bind the Heat to be pure. It's why he has spent the time cultivating the handshakes that define his routine -- and a new pillar of Heat culture.

"It's us through and through," Butler said of the handshakes. "And we're not worried about nobody like I always say. If some of our handshakes bother people, it is what it is, man, we smile and we're having fun with it."

ESPN's Ohm Youngmisuk contributed to this story.