Boris Becker praises Jimmy Butler for leading Miami Heat to last NBA playoff spot with Chicago Bulls win

Tennis great Boris Becker has heaped praise on basketball star Jimmy Butler for leading the Miami Heat to grab the last playoff spot in the East.

Jimmy Butler and Max Strus each scored 31 points as the Miami Heat defeated the Chicago Bulls 102-91 in their play-in game on Friday (April 14) night to secure the final Eastern Conference playoff spot.

Strus scored 23 points in the first half, while Butler earned 22 in the second. Strus hit six three-pointers in the first half and seven overall for the Heat, who finished with a 15-1 surge.

The NBA giants will now be the eighth seed in the East and will face the top-seeded Milwaukee Bucks in the first round. The series begins on Sunday (April 16) in Milwaukee.

In light of this, Becker took to his Instagram stories to admire Butler for his remarkable work and tagged him in his post, writing:

"Finally."

Boris Becker via Instagram stories.

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"I never thought at 17 I'd be incarcerated at 54" - Boris Becker opens up about his time in jail

Boris Becker pictured at the Insolvency Hearing.

Boris Becker served eight months of his two-and-a-half-year sentence for concealing £2.5 million in assets and loans in a bankruptcy fraud case. He was released from prison in December and deported from the United Kingdom.

The three-time Wimbledon champion recently spoke with the BBC and discussed his time in prison. He said that while a younger version of him never imagined he would be imprisoned later in life, the experience humbled him and taught him that the rules are the same for everyone.

"I never thought at 17 I'd be incarcerated at 54. If anything it certainly humbled me, it certainly made me realise that whether you're called Boris Becker or Paul Smith, if you break the law, you get convicted and you get incarcerated, that goes for everybody," he said.

The German then stated that being imprisoned made him a stronger and better man, which he claimed would influence his future decisions.

"I never expected the good and I certainly didn't expect the bad but I'm a survivor, I'm a tough cookie, I've taken the penalties, I've taken the incarceration," he said.

"But I've also taken the glory and if anything this made me a stronger, better man. With my decisions in the future you can see whether I have learned from it or I didn't," he added.