Dragic already on Butler’s ‘all-time favorite teammates list.’ A look at their friendship
The Miami Heat’s duo of Jimmy Butler and Goran Dragic works well on the court. And it apparently also works well off the court.
Through the first 32 games of the season, the Heat has outscored its opponents by 66 points in the 284 minutes Butler and Dragic have played together. Butler has made 15 shots off Dragic assists (only Bam Adebayo has assisted on more Butler baskets), and Dragic has made 10 shots off Butler assists (no other player has assisted on more Dragic baskets).
Off the court, Butler and Dragic have become close friends in their first three months as teammates.
“Man, me and G talk about all types of stuff,” Butler said, as the Heat (24-8) takes its five-game winning streak on the road for Monday’s matchup against the Washington Wizards (9-22). “We send each other all types of things that we find on the internet. I don’t know, man. I was talking to [Heat assistant athletic trainer Armando Rivas] the other day, like G is moving up on my all-time favorite teammates list.”
Butler and Dragic have learned they have a lot in common.
They both are NBA veterans who have been traded multiple times in their careers, and they weren’t necessarily expected to achieve all they have with Butler drafted 30th overall in 2011 and Dragic drafted 45th overall in 2008.
But it’s their love of soccer that has been the driving force behind their friendship. Butler is a Paris Saint-Germain fan because of his friendship with PSG forward Neymar and Dragic is a Real Madrid fan.
“It just happened,” Dragic said of becoming close with Butler. “I feel like some things, you can’t just force it. We get along. I didn’t know that he was a huge soccer fan, and I am, too. We just connected. It’s one of those things that just happened. ... I just like his character. He’s funny.”
Butler got into soccer when he traveled to Brazil to watch Neymar compete in the 2016 Olympics and “started to realize how difficult the game is. That’s when I started to fall in love with it.”
Since then, Butler has learned how to play the sport and even takes part in casual pick-up soccer games around Miami with friends.
“Whenever I have time,” Butler said of playing soccer. “It’s another way of conditioning to me, to tell you the truth. I work on footwork and I’m out there trying stuff. But I don’t play to get hurt. I don’t sprint. I don’t do none of that. I just kick the ball back and forth with some guys.
“The majority of the time, it’s with people that I know. But I make sure not to do nothing stupid because cameras are everywhere. Everybody knows when the ball comes to me, let me kick the ball. It’s like that. It’s like I’m [former President Barack Obama] when he played basketball. Just let him shoot.”
Dragic recently gifted Butler a Slovenian national team soccer jersey. And Butler plans to visit Dragic’s home country of Slovenia this summer.
“We signed him in Slovenia to our national team,” Dragic said with a laugh after urging Butler to show off his new soccer jersey.
Butler joined the Heat this past offseason with a reputation of being an honest and sometimes difficult teammate, like when he criticized his Chicago Bulls teammates for not delivering effort on a consistent basis and not taking losses as hard as they should just months before he was traded to the Minnesota Timberwolves in the 2017 offseason.
Dragic didn’t know Butler personally before this season, but he has already learned Butler isn’t a bad teammate.
“I always say that it’s tough to judge a player when you’re just hearing rumors. It’s never accurate,” said Dragic, who is in the final season of his contract before becoming an unrestricted free agent this summer. “From the first day, he has always been positive. He talks a lot of trash and he was challenging the guys, but I like that because he wants us to be better and it’s fun.”
As for Butler, he has grown to love the competitive side of Dragic’s personality.
“Fierce competitor. He really don’t say much,” Butler said. “But he will [expletive] eat you, for real. Then just the respect he has around the league, in this organization and from his teammates just goes to show how he’ll run through a wall for you. If he can go, he’s going to go.”
▪ Heat forward Justise Winslow (lower back bone bruise) will miss his 12th consecutive game Monday against the Wizards. Winslow did not travel with the team for the one-game trip.
Rookie forward KZ Okpala and two-way contract guard Daryl Macon will also be unavailable for the Heat on Monday. Both are in the G League with the organization’s developmental affiliate, the Sioux Falls Skyforce.
Every other player on the Heat’s roster is expected to be available Monday.
This story was originally published December 29, 2019 at 12:36 PM.
