Jimmy Butler on joining Heat: ‘I kept hearing about this culture. I need that in my life.’
“Welcome, Jimmy” was the message on the giant video screen outside of AmericanAirlines Arena on Friday.
It has been almost three months since the Heat acquired four-time All-Star wing Jimmy Butler through a sign-and-trade transaction at the start of July. With Butler traveling around the world for most of the offseason after signing with Miami, the introductory press conference was put on hold.
But on Friday afternoon, just days before Monday’s annual media day and Tuesday’s start of training camp, Butler was officially introduced as a member of the Heat with team president Pat Riley alongside him for the start of the media session. And for about 20 minutes, Butler gushed about the Heat’s culture.
“To tell you the truth, it’s the culture that I hear about all the time,” Butler said when asked to explain his free agent decision to join the Heat. “The work that you put in every single day, the winning habits, the winning ways. Who wouldn’t want to be a part of that? I was excited to have an opportunity to come here, to be here. But when I kept hearing about this culture, I was like, ‘I need that in my life.’
“I like that our shootarounds are what they are supposed to be, you breaking a sweat. I like that we compete in practice every single day. I like that every time we step onto this court, there is a certain way you have to look, there is a certain mentality you have to have. It’s never like you just step on here just to go through the motions. I think that’s where I got to where I am in the league today.”
The addition of Butler, who turned 30 on Sept. 14, provides the Heat with the leading man it has been chasing for the past few years. He averaged 18.7 points while shooting 46.2 percent from the field and 34.7 percent from three-point range, 5.3 rebounds, four assists and 1.9 steals in 65 games (55 with the 76ers and 10 for the Timberwolves) last season.
Butler signed a four-year, $142 million maximum contract with the Heat. He was eligible for a full five-year, $190 million max contract if he remained with the 76ers, but decided to move elsewhere after Philadelphia was eliminated by the eventual NBA champion Raptors in the second round of the playoffs.
“To tell you the truth, I don’t even think about it. I’m here,” Butler said when asked about the 76ers. “I’m locked in on that. I do get that question a lot and I tell everybody the same answer. We don’t know what could have been, we don’t. So I leave it at that. I’m a player for the Miami Heat, so that’s what I’m locked in on.”
But Butler’s previous NBA stops did come up indirectly when it came to his reputation of being an honest and sometimes difficult teammate.
Butler’s unrelenting competitiveness has created some issues with his past teams. He criticized his teammates in Chicago for not delivering effort on a consistent basis and not taking losses as hard as they should, and he was traded to Minnesota a few months later.
When Butler was traded to the Timberwolves, he ran into similar issues. After completing his first season with Minnesota, he requested a trade just weeks before the start of the 2018-19 season in part because of his belief that not all of his teammates were committed to winning.
“I think I’m a little extra at times. I don’t think there is too much wrong with that either,” Butler said with a grin. “If you do what I do every day and other people don’t go about it that way, I think you might have a problem with it too. I love my job. I love the game. I love to work. I’m at it every single day and hours at a time when people don’t want to do it, so I think why doesn’t everybody do what I do and to this day I just don’t understand it, I really don’t. Will I ever understand it, probably not.
“There’s a lot of stuff that’s out there. It’s just how deep you want to read into it. I don’t think that I’m that bad of a guy. I’m not an asshole like everybody thinks that I am.”
The Heat welcomes Butler’s authentic personality, for better or for worse.
“We’ve talked enough about wanting to be respected. And in order to be respected, you have to show the competition that,” said Riley, who called Butler a top-10 NBA player. “We’re going to find out how he meshes with our team. We’ll see what his impact on winning is. That’s what I’m encouraged about. I embrace all the qualities he has.”
In the end, that’s all Butler wanted to hear during the Heat’s free agent pitch to him on June 30. He wanted to be accepted as a player and person.
So the question of: Why did Butler choose to force a sign-and-trade transaction to the Heat this summer, with seemingly better win-now options in the Clippers, Lakers, Rockets and 76ers out there?
Butler’s answer was clear Friday — the Heat’s culture aligned with his personality. And the endorsement from Wade, Butler’s close friend, helped.
That’s why Butler went back on his word, when he said in an interview in 2013 that the one thing he would never wear is “a Miami Heat jersey.”
“I remember that quote, I remember the day,” Butler said. “It was like, in Chicago we had to get through y’all, which we never really did. ... We hated you guys. We definitely did. That’s how I want it to be when I’m here. I want other teams to hate us, not want to play Miami.
“But now you know, you never know where you’re going to end up at the end of the day.”
This story was originally published September 27, 2019 at 3:22 PM.
