Antawn Jamison and Caron Butler’s All-Star numbers only tell part of the story. The Washington Wizards forwards both go to work in shorts and sneakers, but their approach and attitude is better associated with a hard hat and lunch pale.

“When you look at production, I believe we have the best forward combination in the league,” said Washington Wizards President Ernie Grunfeld. “It’s everything, the points, the rebounds, the assists and the steals. Then you have to consider their professionalism and consistency.”

Butler and Jamison are remarkably consistent. Consider that Jamison once had a consecutive games played streak of 386 that was stopped during the 2004-05 season, but true to his commitment he started every game the next season. And Jamison doesn’t just how up to play, he produces like few players in the NBA can. In the first thirty games of this season, Jamison recorded 20 double-doubles, almost eclipsing last year’s season total of 21 double-doubles.

Butler meanwhile, Jamison’s frontcourt counterpart, stood as one of just three players in the NBA to average at least 20 points, six rebounds and four assists per contest through the first 30 games, joining the Lakers’ Kobe Bryant and the Cavaliers’ LeBron James.

In short, Butler and Jamison are elite forwards. Looking deeper, their production has put them among the top scoring forward tandems in the NBA. In fact, using the season’s first 30 games as a measuring stick, Butler and Jamison combined to average 43.9 points per game -- ahead of Dallas’ Dirk Nowitzki and Josh Howard (43.1), Cleveland’s LeBron James and Drew Gooden (41.9), and Boston’s Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett (40.6). “They can put the numbers on the stat sheet and just plain get it done on the floor. They rebound well and they both score efficiently,” said Head Coach Eddie Jordan. “They have different ways of scoring. Antawn has his post moves, put backs, threes, lay-ups in transition and runners. That puts a lot of stress on the defense and the match-up he has. Caron is very good at making plays for other people and that opens things up for him as well. He has a very efficient game with the mid-range jumper and now the three-point shot.”

“They are both efficient. They both bring leadership and toughness to the table.”

Indeed, Butler and Jamison are also team leaders. They are co-captains, but they are not speech makers. They are not yellers or screamers or vocal in a “rah-rah” kind of a way -- and they don’t have to be. Butler and Jamison are classic studies in leading by example in their actions on and off the court.

“They are an extension of the coach in a sense on the floor but not in a point-guard kind of way,” Jordan added. “They are guys you know you can trust that are going to do as much as they can do and that other players will follow.”

Both players also embrace their roles as leaders. “They (teammates) are going to see how you come in on game days,” Antawn Jamison was quick to point out. “They will also see if you come in early and lift weights before practice every day. It’s little things like that sometimes you might take for granted and think you are doing what you need to do to make yourself better, but it is setting an example for the rest of the guys. It is showing them that this is not just a game. It is a business. There is a certain way you approach this game. There is a certain way you mentally prepare night in and night out.”

It’s a philosophy that is echoed by Caron Butler.

“I always just try to stay as professional and serious as possible and make sure I am businesslike all of the time because this is a job. It is a job that I love doing and I know I need to be a leader on and off the court because I know the young guys are watching me and watching what I do.”

Butler is coming off an All-Star season a year ago. By joining teammate Gilbert Arenas at the All-Star festivities in Las Vegas in 2007, Butler had gone from coming off the bench to begin the 2005-06 season to establishing himself with Jamison and Arenas as part of the team’s “Big Three”.

“It’s a dream come true,” Butler said when he made the 2007 All-Star team. “It’s every player’s dream to be an All-Star and win a championship. One of my dreams came true.”

It was a dream a decade ago that was improbable. Butler’s hard scrabble childhood in Racine, Wisconsin has been well documented. He had been arrested 15 times by the age of 15, but Butler’s is a turnaround story without a u-turn.

It’s a maturation process that took Butler from solitary confinement in jail to success in a team sport. He is not shy about talking about his past because it seems to serve as a daily reminder of how far he is come and what it takes to stay focused on the future.

“He is driven, he is motivated to do the right things and not just in basketball but in life and he knows that is his calling,” Jordan said. “His past is something that he is proud to get through and proud to be where he is now. He will say he is a model for guys who are in the situation he was in. In short, he is not only driven to be a good basketball player but driven to be a good citizen.”

In some way’s Butler’s All Star selection was vindication for his dedication to the game and his dedication to staying on the right path. From the childhood challenges to the trades and transition of professional life, Butler’s exceptional talent was finally being recognized, but the All Star selection only added to his hunger for success.

“It spoiled me. I think with the more you see in this world that you can attain your goals become broader and bigger,” Butler noted. “As I have said, one of my goals is being an All-Star and obviously another is winning a championship. I think we have what it takes in the locker room to get there.”

Butler has gone from putting up career numbers last season in points (19.1), rebounds (7.4), assists (3.7) and steals (2.1) to doing the same this year in almost all of those categories. Through the first 30 games of the 2006-07 season, Butler was averaging 22.1 ppg, 6.9 rpg, 4.5 apg, and 2.2 spg. In fact, there was a stretch of eight out of 12 games in which Butler led the Wizards in assists.

With Gilbert Arenas injured for most of the first half of the season, and Antonio Daniels also sidelined for seven games, Butler answered the challenge to be more of a playmaker. He was also used at times as a shooting guard.

“He is difficult to defend because he can score in so many ways,” Grunfeld said. “He is scoring threes now with ease. He has that mid-range jumper and he freezes defenders with pump fakes because he has the ability to drive by them. And he finishes in transition.”

Perhaps most notable is the addition of three-point shooting to Butler’s repertoire. In his first five seasons in the NBA Butler shot 30% from beyond the arc, but this season Butler’s three-point shooting percentage has jumped to a 40% clip, and the secret to the spike in long range production is simply hard work.

“I wanted to get better in the off-season on shooting threes,” Butler recalled. “I worked so hard on it sometimes that I get too comfortable with shooting the jumper. But it feels good to see the three go down because it is hard work paying off…being in the gym and your body is aching and it is 11:00 and you stay until 2:00 in the morning and you wonder if you are going to get the results you want.”

Antawn Jamison is also getting results but he has been throughout his entire ten-year NBA career by adjusting to whatever role his team needed. He has been everything from a team’s primary scorer to the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year.

Jamison’s production and approach to the game made a fan out of Wizards President Ernie Grunfeld, who also tried on several occasions to make a trade for Jamison when Grunfeld was in Milwaukee as the Bucks General Manager.

“I think people take him for granted because he scores in so many ways,” Grunfeld said. “He is extremely efficient. He’ll grab an offensive rebound, make a lay-up, a jump shot, and score in transition, and before you know it he has 25 points.”

In his early days in Golden State he needed to be the go-to-guy and he responded. In the 2000-01 season with the Warriors, Jamison had back-to-back 51 point games to become the first player in four years to score 50 in back-to-back games -- since Michael Jordan, no less.

“Antawn is just a natural scorer,” Grunfeld added. “He has great hands and has such a soft touch. He can make a shot in traffic, off the wrong leg, but if the shot hits the rim it always fall because of his touch.”

In his one season in Dallas, though he did not want to come off the bench, he accepted the role of a substitute with grace and class. He played all 82 games -- made only two starts -- and averaged close to 15 points with over eight rebounds per game. Beyond the production, Jamison used his time in Golden State and Dallas to help cement his foundation as an NBA player.

“As a young player (with Golden State) there were some tough times when we were not winning and I matured as I learned to cope with that,” Jamison said. “Then in Dallas, I watched as three leaders (Dirk Nowitzki, Michael Finley and Steve Nash) co-existed together and that made me even more prepared for my opportunity with the Wizards.”

At 6’9” 235 pounds, Jamison in some ways plays power forward in a small forward’s body. Yet he hits the boards with the intensity of a player two inches taller and 20 pounds heavier. This season Jamison’s rebounding numbers have ballooned to over ten per game.

“We always say he does more with less,” Jordan said. “Compared with other 4-men and power forwards in this league, he is on the lighter side, but he has a knack. When you have a knack to do something as far as offensive rebounds and defensive rebounds and put-backs then weight isn’t an issue, size isn’t issue, quickness isn’t an issue, and athletic ability isn’t an issue. It is all about having a way and a feel for doing something. He has that.”

Jamison believes he has the ability to read where a ball is going to come off the rim. He is a position rebounder who uses his rebounding to get warmed up offensively. And once he gets warmed up, Jamison is able to draw from an arsenal of shots.

“Yeah the runners, the hooks, the dips, the doodles, or however you describe them on radio,” Jordan pointed out. “You always have the defense on edge and guessing because you don’t see those types shot in the NBA except from him.”

To be sure the Wizards miss Gilbert Arenas in so many ways. Arenas is not on the court to make the big play when an opposing defense closes all options. He is not there to single handedly take over a game. Many questioned how the Wizards would respond over a long term period without Arenas.

Jamison, while well aware of the Wizards need for Gilbert Arenas in uniform and on the floor, had little doubt.

“I think as a society we make excuses. This didn’t go right because of this. Instead of making excuses we should turn a negative into a positive and go from there.”

I am just one of those guys no matter what situation I am in, no matter who is on my team, I always believe that if I am a part of that situation we are going to find a way to get it done.”