Miami – Jimmy Butler did not take the trouble to take a look back in the direction of his old bench, his former comrades or this old floor which he set up for a lot from spring night.
Tuesday evening’s emotion, his return to Miami after an electric and fuel race of five and a half years, was more silent than overwhelming. It was not even smoking.
“It was behind me a long time ago,” said Butler. “As soon as I ended up with a Golden State warrior, everything that happened was dead.”
There was life somewhere, and the Miami Heat found it – the game meant more for them than it appeared, because the two franchises went to opposite directions since the shocking agreement was concluded more than a month ago.
The Warriors have been injected with a new life since the addition of Butler, no longer feeling like fodder for the West summit, and despite this modest sequence of two games, they believe that they are as much a competitor as anyone on this side of Oklahoma City.
Miami has been in a tailpin since he gave butler the profession he asked for the first time, then essentially demanded – hence the reason why the warm and vagueness were not even exposed in the short video tribute that the franchise delivered during his introduction.
Butler had no words for any of his former comrades, except Kevin Love in the first match, and a DAP in Alec Burks a few seconds before the opening council. Nothing towards Erik Spoelstra, who would only go so far in the memory in the front -game – no emotional hug or of the shoulders.
Nothing for Bam Adebayo or Tyler Herro, although there was a little additional physicity in their matches because it seemed that Debayo wanted to keep Butler, starting with him and dragging him in the night.
He certainly had nothing for Pat Riley, the heat tsar that brought him to Miami in 2019, the man whose words at the end of last season stung butler at the heart, the man who refused to give butler the extension of the contract he wanted.
“I have a lot of love for the city, the fans base here,” said Butler. “The video was nice. I won’t say there are a lot of emotions. I got into this thing in the head.”
Butler thanked his current teammates before the match and after for support, knowing what the game meant for him, perhaps even more than what it means for the Warriors in the ranking of the crowded Western conference with less than 10 games to play.
The crowd of the Kaseya Center was up to its reputation for being a little on the side of the factor, a late crowd that generally saves everything it can for the end of May and early June.
“Miami is an ideal place to live, and some people never seem too amplified here, and they live a good life,” said Warriors coach Steve Kerr. “So it was really not so enraged from an environment. It was typical of Miami.”
Butler was hué, but when you see the lists he was wearing in Miami, he should have received a standing ovation. It is not particularly new for him either, given his nomadic nature. Butler did not have it, and his teammates either. Even without Stephen Curry, who will not be back before Friday in New Orleans, it was a bit shocking to see each Warriors starter with only two points each at halftime. The heat was going to win 112-86.
“(Erik Spoelstra) was ready, as we expect the circumstances with Jimmy to return,” said Kerr. “They overthrew everything early, and we missed everything. They brought it to us tonight.”
If there is a culture of heat such, maybe it was exposed for the first time in the eons. The heat played with verve and a goal, each rebound took place, but they were much more intentional about their desires than the team that spent the last week in Atlanta and Miami – two cities which never lose with regard to extracurricular activities.
If not, how could the team that cannot be drawn directly for weeks suddenly reaching 68% out of 25 triples, part of the leaning and peaked variety? It was perhaps the additional energy they had in reserve since the Butler agreement, and they were waiting to trigger it. The endless and exhausting saga had to carry all the people involved.
It was not his last two tumultuous outings, where he clashed with cities of Karl -Anthony in Minnesota in 2018 or in Philadelphia, where the organization could not decide between Butler and Tobias Harris – both free agents in the summer of 2019.
But this is where the story repeats itself positively for Butler, and at least gives the Warriors the best chance to maximize this window with Butler, Curry and Draymond Green.
In the locker room, Butler was an adult NBA man, he was the most accomplished, the most veteran, the most alpha – except once.
He played a year with Dwyane Wade in Chicago, and although Wade was behind a great career and the Bulls have drink at a 41-41 finish, Butler gave up space to his veterinarian. He respected Wade and you could say that there was respect.
There may be a sigh of relief to enter this Warriors locker room. Curry is as respected as all leader of the NBA, while he and Green speak the same language at a number of levels. This was not the case to play with Joel Embiid at the time where Towns or Bam Adebayo.
“You know, you are entering a situation where Steph is a MVP twice, we both won four championships. It’s certainly a little different,” Green told Yahoo Sports. “But I think the most important thing is that we will never approach it as if we were four times champions and we are nothing. He has the greatest respect on our part. His word supports as much weight, if not more than us.
“And that’s how you put someone at ease in your situation this is not the case,” we won. You didn’t do it. Make the line. We know what he did.
Green said the rebounds should go in your sense and that Butler was on the side of business – bounced who did not do it and who did it, Kawhi Leonard fired in 2019 which thwarted the most talented team that Butler played, the Philadelphia 76ers 2019.
For what it is worth, the Chicago Bulls are still withdrawing from the carpet after having exchanged it in 2017. Timberwolves had real success last year, but are now in the field of the game. The 76ers? I do not have to be close, wasting the opportunity after the opportunity and now this window is closed.
These Miami Heat determine that culture is only worth something when there are supernovas opening the way, having passed 6-17 from Butler’s trade and you wonder how this proud organization will get from this mud.
“This guy is a winner. He won wherever he left,” Green told Yahoo Sports, also referring to his year with Chris Paul. “These guys are winners. You need a lot of s *** to fall on your way to win a championship. And he has done everything in his power to bring his team there, and almost delivered a few times.”
These times were with Miami, transporting the heat in the final of the Orlando bubble, coming in a mustache to do so in 2022 before returning and dropping the Boston Celtics in a match 7 on the road to go to the NBA final.
The Jimmy playoffs have an average of 27.1 points, 6.8 rebounds, 5.3 assists and 1.9 interceptions during the last two qualifying series which he played with heat. The structure of the franchise and genius of Spoelstra helped to complete his game, and for a while, the two games were a perfect match.
“I see it for what it is,” said Butler. “A chapter is finished, a new one started. I am very grateful for my time here, the links that I built here. When you look at the road, it’s a large part of my career. I am not nasty towards anyone. I am grateful for this opportunity. It is not at all bad.”
Wounded feelings can turn into crusts one day. Other players like Alonzo Mourning or Tim Hardaway or Udonis Haslem can be more loved by fans and organization, but ultimately only LeBron James and Wade were better than Butler – and I hope that his jersey enters the rafters with other heat lights.
One day, when it is finished, Butler will be registered in the temple of renowned Basketball Naismith and even if it is not like baseball where the players decide which hat is on their bust, it seems that Butler is very likely as Miami Heat.
Maybe the injuries are too cool to think about what it looks like, too much mud being suspended in both directions to see anything clearly.
But for the moment, the heat is moving towards an uncertain future while Butler does the same – it seems simply different and everyone knows why.
