Legend of Jimmy Butler grows with quarantine workout story: ‘That’s why I love Jimmy.’
Jimmy Butler is not one to allow for the clock to infringe on his workouts, with the All-Star wing turning heads with his 3:30 a.m. workouts at Miami Heat training camp at the start of this season.
Apparently, a mandatory quarantine isn’t enough to stop Butler either.
According to a Tuesday night report on TNT’s studio show, Butler went through a rigorous basketball workout in his hotel room at the Gran Destino Tower at Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort during the Heat’s mandatory quarantine period upon arrival at Walt Disney World last week. The workout was so intense that it earned a disturbance complaint from another person at the hotel, which is housing only NBA players, coaches and league personnel.
“There was a loud thumping going on,” Yahoo Sports NBA reporter Chris Haynes said during an appearance on Tuesday night’s TNT studio show that features former Heat guard Dwyane Wade. “So ... the security guard went over to investigate, found the room, knocked on the room and who opened the door? It was Miami Heat forward Jimmy Butler drenched in sweat with practice gear on from head to toe. He was dribbling a basketball throughout his room the whole time.”
Butler’s workout came during the Heat’s initial quarantine at Disney, with each of the 22 teams required to quarantine in their individual hotel rooms upon arrival until they returned two negative COVID-19 tests at least 24 hours apart. Miami’s 36-hour quarantine began when players and staff arrived at the NBA campus last Wednesday night, and it ended when they were cleared to leave their rooms and begin team practices Friday afternoon.
Heat rookie Tyler Herro said Wednesday he was not surprised when he heard the story because “we all know how Jimmy works and what he does.”
“That’s why I love Jimmy,” coach Erik Spoelstra said on a post-practice video conference call Wednesday after making it clear the Heat did not force players to work out during their quarantine period. “Not because of this one example, I mean there are many things that he brings to the table. But he has an unparalleled work ethic, and he is a driven basketball player that really wants to help a team compete for a title.
“He’s willing to do anything. One of his greatest qualities is his level of discipline. That’s really unique, how he can discipline himself with his work. What time he works out, his nutrition, his consistency every single day, his consistency at doing that in the offseason and never getting out of shape. He’s constantly working to get to another level,” he said. “I mentioned it before we got here, when you go and enter into a circumstance like this in a playoff scenario where there are some uncertainties, you want to have guys like Jimmy Butler leading your organization because he’s about the right things and his work ethic is something and his discipline is something that everybody follows him.”
Butler, 30, is averaging team-highs in points (20.2), assists (6.1) and steals (1.7) in his first season with the Heat.
“There’s no home-court advantage, there are no fans, there’s no crowd like that,” Butler said Tuesday of the fanless quarantine-type environment games will be played in at Disney. “It’s all about who’s going out there, who’s competing the hardest, who wants it more. Like Coach Spo always says, it’s the hunger games. It’s going to be a dog-eat-dog world in here.”
The season is set to resume July 30 and end in October at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex, with the Heat beginning its three-game scrimmage schedule July 22 against the Sacramento Kings.
Miami’s eight-game seeding schedule begins Aug. 1 against the Denver Nuggets. The Heat (41-24) has already clinched a spot in the playoffs, which begin Aug. 17.
“People like to say that we have a group full of underdogs,” Butler said. “Say what you will, but we got a group full of really good pros that love to hoop, love to compete. We’re going to go out there and give it our all. Home, away or neutral here at Disney, I think you can count on the Miami Heat bringing it.”
▪ Butler is still waiting and hoping for NBA approval to play without his last name on his jersey when the season restarts, according to a league source. He’s also the only player on the Heat’s 17-man roster who opted not to wear a social justice message on the back of his jersey.
“I hope that my last name doesn’t go on there, as well, just because I love and respect all the messages that the league did choose,” Butler said following Tuesday’s practice. “But for me, I felt like with no message, with no name, it’s going back to who I was. If I wasn’t who I was today, I’m no different than anybody else of color. I want that to be my message in the sense that just because I’m an NBA player, everybody has the same right no matter what.”
This story was originally published July 15, 2020 at 1:33 PM.
