Heat Star Talks Leadership and Playoffs

Shot on location at ZZ’s Membership, Miami

Jimmy Butler is in all places lately.

There he’s on the US Open, serving as an honorary ball boy for an exhibition match between Carlos Alcaraz and Frances Tiafoe. There he’s within the new music video for Fall Out Boy’s “So A lot (For) Stardust,” sporting his now-legendary “Emo Jimmy” look. There he’s in adverts for Hulu, Alo, State Farm and Resorts.com. There he’s sampling merchandise for BIGFACE, his budding espresso model, and on the first-ever Reserve Cup, a padel competitors that he helped convey to Miami. There he’s on the Kaseya Middle, hovering for lobs and pulling down threes.

And right here he’s at ZZ’s Membership Miami, singing and dancing alongside to Lloyd’s “You,” respiratory power into the membership’s swanky sports activities bar. He’s, in any case, 5 cups of espresso in, and it’s simply 2:30 p.m. (he drinks 10-12 cups a day, by the best way). A large-ranging playlist booms by way of a handheld speaker—all the things from “Let Me Love You” by Mario to “Jamming” by Bob Marley & the Wailers to “Loop Gap” by Tee Grizzley that includes 21 Savage. In between posing for pictures, the Warmth star snacks on sushi and sips an quaint.

Welcome to Jimmy Butler’s SLAM cowl shoot, and welcome, extra broadly, to his ever-growing universe, the place you’re invited—err, inspired—to be your genuine self always. To observe no matter passions you might have.

SLAM 249 that includes Jimmy Butler is accessible now. Store right here.

Butler is a person of many pursuits: espresso, wine, nation music, tennis, padel, soccer (which he calls soccer), dominoes, spades, UNO, touring—the listing goes on. He’s at all times as much as one thing, at all times surrounded by household and pals. His home in Miami doesn’t even have TVs. As an alternative of binge-watching reveals, Butler does issues like chase tennis balls round Louis Armstrong Stadium in Queens, NY, as a result of, nicely, it’s enjoyable and he felt like doing it. He’s at the moment engaged on his personal nation album; proper now, it options 62 songs (!) and Butler, who has performed a DJ Khaled-like function, is debating whether or not to hop on one.

“He likes to get into a complete bunch of stuff that you simply wouldn’t assume he would get pleasure from doing,” says Butler’s teammate Caleb Martin. “He’s simply tremendous energetic, man, whether or not he’s doing one thing on an off day or assembly up with sure varieties of artists or taking part in dominoes or going to tennis matches. He’s undoubtedly a dude filled with surprises.”

Surprises like…starring in that aforementioned Fall Out Boy video in an all-purple cowboy outfit.

“Something to shake up something on the web and frequently be myself, be completely satisfied and love my life and what I’m doing, I’m down,” Butler says. The video was shot over All-Star break and it dropped lower than two weeks later. And sure, it shook up the web.

Butler strikes a tough steadiness: he doesn’t take life too severely, however he’s additionally extraordinarily aggressive. He cracks jokes, however usually leaves individuals questioning…was that basically a joke?

“Don’t be fooled since you see me on TV or a industrial or a billboard, I do a number of the identical stuff y’all do,” he says, earlier than including with a smile, “I’m most likely simply higher at it than all y’all…however I can’t assist that.”

The reality (and irony) is, Butler engages in lots of extracurricular actions, resembling tennis and songwriting, “to humble” himself. He desires to expertise firsthand the challenges of different professions. In fact, he’s additionally sure that if he retains working at one thing, he’ll excel at it. He has a burning want to be the most effective at all the things he does.

To win at all the things he does.

Take spades, for instance. The Warmth prefer to play on the crew airplane throughout lengthy street journeys. “After I say he doesn’t lose, he doesn’t lose,” ahead Jamal Cain says. “Me and Haywood Highsmith beat him as soon as and he was type of shitty after that. I type of noticed it in his face. He’s very aggressive. He doesn’t prefer to lose.”

Or take dominoes, which is perhaps the sport Jimmy is greatest at (together with the one he’s well-known for). “He’s a top-five, top-10 dominoes participant on the planet,” claims Chris Brickley, Butler’s coach. “I do know this as a result of he and [Colombian singer] J Balvin have flown within the prime dominoes gamers on the planet, like, world champions. And he’s beat them.”

“That’s some Jimmy shit,” Martin remarks with fun. He and his twin brother, Cody, are a uncommon duo which have truly beat Jimmy in dominoes. “And we ain’t performed since,” Martin says. “On and off the court docket, he doesn’t prefer to lose. He’s ducking me, for positive. Ever since we performed him, he tells me and my brother, ‘Y’all are The Funky Brothers.’ Me and Cody play funky, so it messes him up.”

Butler brings that very same aggressive mindset to his model, BIGFACE, which he’s very devoted to constructing. Together with the BIGFACE crew, he has visited Colombia and Ecuador on a quest to search out the most effective espresso. He’s even attempting to grasp latte artwork and the way to make the right cappuccino.

“Folks can see this on the court docket as nicely—his dedication to one thing and to understanding all the things there’s to learn about it interprets from basketball to espresso,” says Britt Berg, Chief Working Officer at BIGFACE. She and Butler textual content about espresso nearly every single day.

BIGFACE is ready to open its first brick-and-mortar store in Miami later this 12 months, a milestone that Jimmy is eagerly awaiting. “After I’m not training, after I’m not with my youngsters, after I’m not in a sport, I can inform you the place I’m gonna be, and that’s on this espresso store, assembly all of the followers of myself and of espresso,” he says. “As a result of I do love espresso, I do wish to convey the most effective espresso to Miami. I don’t assume there’s a spot like that right here but, and I would like the primary BIGFACE café to be that, in order that’s the place I’m gonna be. And we want that. Miami wants that…together with a championship!”

Ah, sure. We must always most likely discuss a bit about basketball. It’s mid-March after we shoot this cowl—or, as Butler calls it, “that point.”

Enable him to elaborate: “It’s the time the place individuals actually gotta take into consideration going up in opposition to the Miami Warmth and myself. I do know what I’m able to. I do know what my squad is able to. And don’t no one wish to see us in a seven-game collection anyhow. We all know that.”

We do.

Miami completed eighth within the Jap Convention with a 46-36 file. However, then once more, the Warmth entered final 12 months’s playoffs because the No. 8 seed earlier than happening an epic run to the Finals. In 2019-20, the League’s bubble season, Miami reached the Finals because the No. 5 seed.

“No one can inform you something proper now,” Jimmy says. “There are three issues that you simply gotta have with the intention to win a championship: you’ve gotta be taking part in your greatest basketball on the proper time, you gotta be wholesome, and also you gotta be fortunate. That’s simply the best way that it’s. So can’t no one inform proper now who’s going to have all three of these issues.”

Butler quietly had one other stellar 12 months, posting 20.8 factors, 5.3 rebounds and 5.0 assists per sport and taking pictures a career-high 41.4 % from behind the arc. Don’t count on him to be launching extra threes within the postseason, although. “I simply don’t like taking pictures threes as a result of I wish to run into you,” he says. “I wish to hit any person. You possibly can’t hit no one if you happen to shoot threes. I wish to see who’s going to give up first. I’m gonna hold working in there, I’m gonna hit you, and I’m gonna hit you once more, and I’m gonna hit you once more, and we’re gonna see who’s gonna give up.”

That feels like one thing the fabled and fearless “Playoff Jimmy” would say, doesn’t it? Solely factor is, Butler continues to disclaim that Playoff Jimmy exists.

“That’s not a factor for the hundredth time,” he insists. “Playoff Jimmy just isn’t a factor. Emo Jimmy, factor. Soccer Jimmy, factor. Tennis Jimmy, factor. Daddy Jimmy, factor. Zaddy Jimmy, factor. However Playoff Jimmy, not a lot.”

OK, truthful sufficient. However price noting: over a four-season stretch, Butler has led Miami to the Jap Convention Finals 3 times and to the Finals twice, averaging 24.7 factors, 6.8 rebounds, 5.7 assists and 1.9 steals by way of 64 playoff video games. Through the 2020 Finals, he registered two triple-doubles, together with simply the third 40-point triple-double in Finals historical past. In Recreation 6 of the 2022 ECF, he hung 47 factors, 9 rebounds, 8 assists and 4 steals on the Celtics to power a Recreation 7 (certainly one of 4 40-plus-point performances he had that postseason). He set a franchise playoff file with 56 factors in Recreation 4 of final season’s first-round collection in opposition to the top-seeded Bucks, then adopted it up with 42 factors in Recreation 5 as his crew pulled off one of many greatest upsets ever.

Butler will admit that issues “ramp up a notch” this time of 12 months. Amid the previous few weeks of the common season and into the playoffs, he and Brickley begin understanding the evening earlier than each single sport. They examine the protection Miami is about to face and attempt to replicate the precise conditions Butler will discover himself in. What spots on the ground can be open? What pictures can be accessible? What switches may happen? Butler’s basketball IQ is “most likely the best IQ out of any participant I’ve labored with,” says Brickley.

Martin, who has been with the Warmth since 2021, notices a “psychological shift” in Jimmy because the playoffs loom. “I believe him having the expertise of going by way of this section so many instances, he is aware of the way to time stuff up along with his physique, after which [there’s] the psychological a part of it, too, him simply being so regular mentally,” Martin explains. “He’s very strategic. He is aware of when it’s time to ramp up. He is aware of what video games most likely harm greater than others or regardless of the case is. Every part he does, he thinks about.”

The added reps within the gymnasium assist, as does Butler’s very calculated method. But when there’s one motive to imagine Playoff Jimmy is actual, and that different groups ought to concern his impending arrival, it’s this: Jimmy Butler is absolutely assured in who he’s and what he’s able to. There’s a consolation in that, a peace. Any emotions of self-doubt and strain are gone. He doesn’t care one bit what others take into consideration him—what others predict he and his crew will or received’t do.

That kind of confidence has a method of rubbing off on the individuals round him: pals, colleagues, teammates.

“When you may have a frontrunner like that, it offers you a way of confidence in your talents and what you’re doing,” says Berg.

“The very first thing I observed with Jimmy, he’s very snug being in his pores and skin. He doesn’t care what anybody thinks about him,” Cain provides. “Seeing how he carried himself and the way assured and cozy he was in his pores and skin solely made me extra snug being who I’m.”

Cain remembers one sport day when he and different members of the Warmth huddled as much as pray earlier than taking the court docket, as was their ritual, and requested that Jimmy flip down the music he was blasting. “Y’all must be praying to me!” Butler responded. “He mentioned it in a joking method, however simply the truth that that was the very first thing on his thoughts, I used to be like, Wow, that is Jimmy in a nutshell,” Cain recollects with a chuckle.

It’s no coincidence that Butler describes the Warmth as being “overly assured in a great way.” Largely, that id stems from him. Regardless of the ups and downs of the common season, Butler has little question that his crew has what it takes to make one other deep playoff run.

Why?

“We simply have a special method of going about issues,” he says. “Our teaching workers cares they usually’re continuously finding out how we are able to make all people on our roster persist with their robust fits and avoid the weak factors of their video games. Possession cares—they’re at each observe, they’re on the airplane. We’re speaking to at least one one other. We actually fuck with each other, which is an efficient factor. And, um…”