Jazz rookie Walker Kessler providing NBA Finals bridge to past to late Heat forward Alec Kessler

DENVER – Among the elements that define the NBA Finals is the way the league creates a bridge to the past amid its championship series, with many of the legends of the game in attendance.

For the Miami Heat there is a different type of bridge to the past in this best-of-seven series against the Denver Nuggets.

Among the credentialed NBA media for the series are four standout rookies from this past season, including Utah Jazz center Walker Kessler, nephew of late former Heat forward Alec Kessler.

“My dad would talk about him all the time, how good of a player he was,” Kessler said to the South Florida Sun Sentinel during a private moment in the series, with Sunday’s Game 2 at Ball Arena. “And it definitely means a lot to represent him.”

Walker’s father, Chad Kessler, Alec’s brother, was a 1987 draft choice of the Los Angeles Clippers who had an overseas basketball career.

Alec Kessler was a 1990 first-round pick of the Heat who spent four seasons with Miami and then a season in Italy. He died of a heart attack suffered while playing in a pick-up game in 2007, at the age of 40.

“He actually passed before I really got to know him on a personal level,” said Walker Kessler, 21, who was 5 at the time. “It was definitely difficult. And I remember going to his funeral and seeing how my dad dealt with that a little bit. I was still pretty young.”

Since then, Walker Kessler said he’s watched videos from those early Heat days and noticed a player somewhat ahead of his time, with his 6-foot-11 late uncle having played as a stretch four for the Heat when that wasn’t quite as prevalent in the league.

“I have seen some of that,” he said. “He was doing that before a lot of guys.”

But there also is another side of the story, the side that made his uncle so unique in Heat lore. Like Chad Kessler, who is an orthopedic surgeon, Alec Kessler also became an orthopedic surgeon, with a post-NBA practice in Pensacola.

From the moment he was drafted by the Heat out of Georgia, Alec Kessler had made clear the desire to go into medicine, which he did by attending Emory School of Medicine after his playing career. He often during his playing career would go on rounds with Heat team physician Harlan Selesnick.

“My dad,” Walker Kessler said, “used to tell me stories of how my uncle would have his medical books on the team planes, flying to games and studying. So it says a lot about his dedication, his work. So that’s really cool.”

For his part, Walker Kessler, who is coming off a breakout season that had him third in the voting for Rookie of the Year and first-team All-Rookie, has been attempting to make his mark beyond the game.

This past week that meant injecting himself into Finals media sessions, including Saturday’s with Nuggets center Nikola Jokic.

Kessler: “Just want to ask, I know you get a lot of questions about basketball and everything, man, but just want to know, how you doing? How you feeling?”

Jokic: “Oh, I like it. Doing good. It’s raining today. It was rainy when I came here.”

Kessler: “Listen, my day got brighter when I saw you.”

Jokic: “Oh, I like it, my friend. Appreciate it. Appreciate it. I think we are just waiting for the game to come. I think when the game comes, everything is going to be normal. Right now, everything is a little bit too much.”

Kessler: “Thank you, big fan.”

Jokic: “Thank you, my friend.”