No basket, no problem. Jimmy Butler has basketball hoops sent to Heat teammates and coaches
Jimmy Butler has made sure his Miami Heat teammates at least have a basket to work with as team facilities around the NBA are closed indefinitely amid the NBA’s coronavirus shutdown.
With Goran Dragic as the only Heat player who entered the shutdown with a basket at his home (a portable hoop at his Miami house), according to the team, Butler and the rest of Miami’s roster were left without the necessary resources to get shots up.
But Butler decided enough was enough and bought a basketball hoop for himself to work with at his home in the San Diego area. As first reported by the Miami Herald, the All-Star wing then had portable baskets sent to each Heat player and coach to make sure they had one, too, as they wait out the NBA hiatus.
The baskets from Lifetime, a company based in Utah that manufactures various products, were delivered to Heat players and coaches a few days ago. Even the players living in condominiums and two-way contract players living in a Miami hotel received them, with the option to have them then sent to their offseason homes.
“Two days ago I received a big box, I opened it and it was a basketball hoop from Jimmy,” Dragic said Sunday in an Instagram Live discussion with Heat television host Jason Jackson. “My first hoop [that I have] is for kids. So basically, it was not a real hoop for me. Yesterday [Saturday] I was putting together all these pieces and finally I made it. I already shot some shots to take advantage of that. Jimmy, thank you brother. I appreciate it.”
In addition, Butler will donate a number of the same portable baskets to schools and youth centers around Miami once children are permitted to return to those areas after the peak of the pandemic.
The baskets should help Heat players avoid getting too rusty, with still no clear timetable for a potential restart to the 2019-20 season. June is believed to be the earliest games will resume, but there’s also the possibility that the season won’t restart and the next NBA game played will be as part of the 2020-21 season.
During a conference call with reporters Friday, NBA commissioner Adam Silver said the league is “not ready to set a date of how long we can wait before we can no longer continue the season. Everything is on the table, including potentially delaying the start of next season. We are not in position to make any decisions [about the status of this season] and it’s unclear when we will be. We still don’t have enough information to make a decision.”
The NBA playoffs were scheduled to begin Saturday, with the Heat owning home-court advantage in a first-round series against the Indiana Pacers based on the current standings.
This story was originally published April 19, 2020 at 1:06 PM.
