Messi countdown builds, stakes on Lillard, WNBA back in Miami & more

GREG COTE’S HOT BUTTON TOP 10 (JULY 9): WHAT IN SPORTS HAS GRABBED US LATELY: Our Sunday Hot Button Top 10 feature –back after two weeks off on vacation — had been blog-only, but with our blog now retired it moved, re-imagined, to online-only. HB10 means what’s on our minds, locally and nationally, but from a Miami perspective and accentuating stuff that’s major, offbeat, damnable, funny or worth needling as the sports week just past pivots to the week ahead. Welcome to the 22nd edition of the new HB10:

1. INTER MIAMI: Messi countdown 12 days as adidas teases new kit: The first images of Lionel Messi wearing No. 10 in pink in an Inter Miami kit emerged this week in the main windows of an adidas store in New York’s SoHo neighborhood with the slogan, “Impossible is coming.” Messi, seven-time Ballon d’Or winner, is coming to America this summer and expected to make his Inter Miami debut July 21 in Fort Lauderdale in a Leagues Cup match vs. Mexico’s Cruz Azul. Meantime former Barcelona teammates Sergio Busquets and Jodi Alba will join Messi in turning Inter Miami into Barca East. The team is scrambling to add 3,000 seats to a stadium that still will be frightfully small to accommodate demand for Messi.

2. WNBA: Is Miami hosting new offseason league a precursor to WNBA return?: New York Liberty star Breanna Stewart and Minnesota Lynx player Napheesa Collier have plans to start a new privately funded women’s basketball league based in Miami to give top WNBA players an option to play domestically in the offseason beginning in 2024. Called Unrivaled, the league is planned for January through March with 30 top players on six teams and a 3-on-3 and 1-on-1 format. Two thoughts: 1) A good idea that has echoes of Brittney Griner spending 18 months in Russian detention. Top women’s stars should not have to play overseas to augment a too-small WNBA pay scale. 2) The Miami Sol was an early WNBA team in 2000-02 before folding. Let’s hope the new league based here kick-starts interest in the league returning to South Florida.

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3. HEAT: As Lillard pursuit waits, stakes are huge for Miami, Riley: Pat Riley’s epic NBA career and accomplishment make his resume’ beyond any need for vindication (as I write in this column), yet Miami closing the deal to trade for Portland star Damian Lillard holds huge stakes for both the Heat and its president. Miami is all-in on Lillard and losing him to another team, let alone the pursuing East-rival, Celltics or 76ers, would be devastating. It also would be a personal blow to Riley, who, at 78, is under fire from some fans for failing in recent years to close deals on sought-after free agents. The stakes on Lillard: A last hurrah and likely a final championship shot for Riley.

4. MARLINS/MLB: Arraez, Soler heading west as Seattle primps for All-Star Week: Miami is surprisingly good and playoff-hunting and sends .400-chasing Luis Arraez and slugger Jorge Soler out west to rep the…