Former NBA All-Star says Tony Romo could have played pro basketball

April 10 (UPI) -- Tony Romo successfully parlayed his career into a new job in broadcasting, but one former NBA player said the quarterback could have made it on the basketball court.

Romo, 36, played high school basketball in Wisconsin. The Dallas Mavericks will honor him Tuesday night by allowing him to sport the team's uniform, take part in warm-ups, and sit on the bench during its game against the Denver Nuggets.

Two-time NBA All-Star Caron Butler told ESPN that the former quarterback could "easily" have played professional basketball.

"Believe it or not, man, when we were in the prime of our careers, I used to always talk about it: [Romo] could have easily been a professional basketball player," Butler told ESPN. "And a lot of people were like, 'Man, you're crazy for saying that,' but Tony could shoot. He could handle the ball. He had a knack for scoring, man, he really did."

Butler faced Romo once in high school while playing for Racine Park. Both players were members of the 1998 All-Racine County boys' basketball team. Romo averaged 24.3 points, while Butler posted 24 points per game, according to the ESPN report. Romo's Burlington High School is 25.5 miles from Butler's former school.

"He was a really good football player, obviously, being a quarterback," Butler told ESPN. "He was great at golf. And he was really good at basketball. Obviously it worked out for him with the football, but I wouldn't have been surprised if he would have made it playing basketball. He had a great feel for the game, man. And it's not surprising. Golf is a cerebral game; you gotta have that mental component to conquer the course. And then football's the same thing; you gotta be able to think on the fly and do all these things. And then basketball, I thought, all those components worked together."

Romo was the first player in his high school's history to get all-state accolades in three different sports, according to the Dallas Morning News.

"Oh yeah, basketball was his true love when we were kids," Steve Tenhagen, one of Romo's former high school teammates, told Bleacher Report in 2015. "But when he stepped on that football field his junior year...it was like you knew. He was just the ultimate competitor. It didn't matter what he was playing; he always played with confidence knowing he'd put his team in the position to win."

Butler's last NBA season came in 2015 with the Sacramento Kings.