Some insight into what drives Butler and what Heat can expect

If you want a peek into what drives new Heat swingman Jimmy Butler and nuances of his personality, he offered considerable insight in a podcast with then-76ers teammate J.J. Redick last December.

Among the revelations from that conversation:

▪ As is the case with most All-Stars, there’s supreme confidence.

“I don’t think there’s a way to guard me if I can get to the spot I want to get on the floor, especially if I’m dribbling the ball first,” he told Redick. “If I get here and rise up and shoot that shot, fading away, I know how to shoot it. I’ve done it a million times. I’m going to make it.”

He said if a team tries to force him to his left, he’s got something now to counter that.

▪ He spoke of his passion for the work required to be a very good player — a passion that the Heat assuredly appreciates.

“I love my craft,” he said. “I was lucky at a young age to have had vets, such as Luol [Deng], Rip [Hamilton], to tell me how important it is at a young age to take care of my body. I fell in love with the work part of it to see where it’s gotten me to this day. It wasn’t supposed to happen for me [as a 30th overall draft pick in 2011]. It wasn’t in the cards. I enjoy it. I love coming in early and staying late. My body is hurting, so I get the ice, massage, I get treatment. It’s my job [but] I really, really love to do it. ... [And] to this day, I still really enjoy watching film. I find something different every time.”

▪ Asked if he believes he has a reputation, he said: “I hope so — that he just wants to win at all costs. I don’t give [an expletive] what anybody thinks about me. All I want to do is win. If you’re not doing everything in your power to help the team, I’m going to have a problem and I’m going to voice it over and over to coach, ... management. I’m not scared of confrontation. I thrive on confrontation. Not everyone is cut like that, especially the new age NBA. I’m not going to change who I am because you don’t like it. I got here because of who I am. Look at me in practice and in a game, I’ve always been that way….

“How I expect you to do it is going to help us win and help us be great. I haven’t as a person changed. I always had the same drive, always worked this hard. Now because I say something somebody doesn’t like, it’s like, ‘He changed since 2011.’”

▪ He takes his personal “team,” including a full-time trainer, with him most everywhere he goes.

“Even when I go on vacation, I take my team, my trainers, and we train even on vacation,” he said. “Four, five in the morning we train so we have all day to enjoy ourselves. My number one rule with my guys is if I’m working, you’re there too” — though he allows them to play basketball on an adjacent court, read, or do something else while Butler is working out.

His regimen also has included yoga and conditioning work on the beach.

▪ He said he did not wish to practice with the Timberwolves at times early last season before the trade because they kept telling him they “almost got a deal” to trade him.

“What do I need to practice? You all are going to trade me,” Butler told Redick, explaining his thinking last October. “When we’re sitting in there [with Timberwolves officials], there were some people and it was going back and forth — not really heated — and somebody says, ‘You’re going to practice.’

“I have a problem when someone as a grown man is telling me what to do. I said, ‘First of all, you’re not going to tell me what I’m going to do.’ If I choose to practice, I will practice.”

▪ Asked what he spends money on, he said: “Vacations, a lot on vacations. We live life. I grew up in a small town [Tomball, Texas, outside Houston], I didn’t know where half the countries were I visited in the last couple years. Wine is a close second. That’s probably what I will get into after my career. This past summer, [I] started with watches.”

▪ The last word: He said he only knows “one way to play and that’s go hard and try to prove you’re the best player on the floor every time you step in between those lines.”

Here’s my Tuesday piece on what the Heat can accomplish with personnel procurement in 2020 and 2021 with Westbrook or without Westbrook.

Here’s my Tuesday piece on the challenge that Miami’s hard cap has created with three Heat players, plus the latest on Tyler Herro’s good work in Tuesday’s win against Orlando.

This story was originally published July 9, 2019 at 9:49 PM.