Tyler Herro: Boy Wonder
“It’s not the size of the Herro in the Tyler. It’s the size of the Tyler in the Herro.”
At 20 years and 247 days old, Tyler Herro scored 37 points and led the Miami Heat to a 112-109 victory against the Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference Finals of the NBA. This feat made the rookie the youngest player in NBA history to score that many points in a playoff game. The admiration he gets from his teammate and biggest fan, Jimmy Butler, is admirable. The feeling is mutual between them, as Herro has spoken about the support he gets from Butler as a rookie and him wanting to get to the NBA finals for the veteran he calls his big brother. That dream has now been realised, as the Miami Heat will face the Los Angeles Lakers in the 2020 NBA finals.
Herro’s famous “I’m a bucket” line, blurted when he was a Kentucky freshman guard during a 70-66 win against Arkansas isn’t surprising when you observe his personality. He is self confident, a trait displayed both on and off the court as seen with his fashion choice during the 2019 NBA draft. He also understands the importance of having a good work ethic, and this laid the foundation for the bond between him and Butler who invited the rookie to his 4 a.m. workouts in the summer.
To understand why the 13th overall pick of the 2019 draft has the type of mentality associated with special players, one has to look back on his path to the league.
In his senior season at Whitnall High school, he averaged 32.9 points, 7.4 rebounds, 3.6 assists, and 3.3 steals per game, shooting over 50% from the floor and 43.5% from the three point line. After verbally committing to play for the University of Wisconsin, Head Coach of Kentucky, John Calipari visited Whitnall High school to watch Herro workout and subsequently offered him a scholarship in October 2017. Herro’s reason for choosing Kentucky instead, boiled down to where he and his family felt he could grow and achieve his dream. His Kentucky experience with Calipari and Kenny Payne prepared him for life as a professional. Herro’s decision not to play for Wisconsin was met by a barrage of criticism which escalated to death threats on social media, some attendees of his high school games bringing stuffed animal snakes including posters of him on a snake body, and according to Bleacher report, someone walked up to him at a gas station saying “Walk across that street. I hope you get hit by a truck,”. This situation meant Herro had to make use of the mental toughness that had been instilled in him by his father, Chris Herro.
His father played basketball in his early years, and he had scholarship offers from schools such as Saint Louis and Florida State before tearing his anterior cruciate ligament in the first week of his high school senior year. The experience of his basketball dream disappearing is one of the lessons he passed on to his son in terms of not taking things for granted. Tyler took full advantage of learning the fundamentals from his father, who was also the coach of his junior team. It wasn’t easy to impress the elder Herro’s demanding and tough love approach when it came to basketball, and this definitely played a part in Tyler’s ability to excel even under tough conditions. His famous 45 point triple double game in high school when opposition fans taunted him with “overrated” chants is a typical response. It is worth noting his father never forced him to play the game, but one thing he required was Tyler giving whatever he did 100%, a reputation he lives up to today.
“He puts in a great deal of work. He’s coachable. He’s at it every single day, even today, the pre-practice group he was in there before the head coach even got in there getting in his work. That’s not something he’s changing just because more people are noticing now, this is who he has been all year long.”
After averaging 13.5 points, 4.1 rebounds and 2.2 assists shooting 38.9% from the three point line in his first regular season, he was named in the NBA All-Rookie Second Team and only one point shy of being on the first team. Despite his disappointment, he had a gracious response saying although he felt he could have been on the first team, he was happy with the recognition. He then averaged 19.2 points, 6.3 rebounds and 4.8 assists per game while shooting 52.3% from the floor and 34.9% from the three point line in the Easter Conference Finals, which is pretty impressive for a rookie. The Heat will be underdogs in the Lakers series, and regardless of who wins in best of seven, Tyler will always be a Herro.