Watch Game 1 of the NBA Finals between the Miami Heat and Los Angeles Lakers live on Sky Sports Arena in the early hours of Thursday morning (1:45am), full replay at 8am
Wednesday 30 September 2020 06:14, UK
After ascending to the NBA Finals, no one will underestimate Miami Heat star Jimmy Butler ever again.
When you are LeBron James and you are headed to the Finals for the ninth time in 10 years (10th time overall), you can sit on the court and stay emotionally detached, all but yawning as the other Lakers gathered around for the trophy that comes with winning the Western Conference.
"Right now it don't mean [bleep] unless I get it done," James told ESPN, making it clear that reaching the NBA Finals is just another step for him.
For most of the rest of the league, though, getting to the Finals is no small accomplishment. They hand out hardware for winning your conference for a reason. And even teams that lose in the Finals etch themselves into NBA history to a degree, say, that No 1 seeds do not.
The Miami Heat, by eliminating the Boston Celtics in Game 6 on Sunday night, won the East. It was difficult. It took almost a year. And it deserved a moment or two of appreciation.
The Heat reached the championship series playing from down under as the Eastern Conference's No 5 seed, then methodically dispatching the fourth, first and third seeds. No 3 seed Boston took care of No 2 Toronto, so you could argue the Heat went through the Raptors too.
Miami are still four victories shy of the goal players and coaches actually do talk about, the only goal that matters to an all-timer like James. But this level, this seam between what the Heat just did and the task awaiting them, is too significant and took too much work to simply skip over.
Miami emerged from the East by toppling the Pacers, the Bucks and the Celtics to the tune of a 12-3 record in these playoffs. They earned the title shot against James, Miami's former superstar, and that storied franchise from Los Angeles. They joined past underdogs such as the 1995 Houston Rockets and the 1999 New York Knicks in getting this far.
So whether they realise it or admit it or not, it's kind of a big deal.
Especially to Miami's star man Jimmy Butler, Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra and starting point guard Goran Dragic, all of whom ticked some pretty important boxes merely by reaching the Finals.
Many have underestimated Butler at each stage of his NBA development, from No 30 pick in the 2011 Draft to a starter two years later to four straight All-Star selections. He won a Most Improved Player Award in 2015, earned four All-Defense berths and played chicken with the Chicago Bulls (and won) in the negotiation of his first big contract, also in 2015.
Butler's reputation for a head that was growing as fast as his game got him traded from Chicago and later Minnesota. He didn't endear himself to the Philadelphia 76ers, either, who instead invested in Tobias Harris as their third option behind Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons.
Even when Miami wooed Butler with his four-year, $140.7m contract in July 2019, the consensus on the largely self-made, 6ft 7in wing was: "Not good enough to be the best player on a championship contender."
Look where he is now. At 31, with Bam Adebayo's and Tyler Herro's rapid ascension, Butler might not be the Heat's best player for long. But he is their 'alpha', and he has led his team further than Embiid, Giannis Antetokounmpo, James Harden, Chris Paul, Damian Lillard, Blake Griffin, Paul George and several others considered more skilled or team-oriented.
"I'm not for everybody," Butler said on Sunday, "but here I am."
Moving to Miami, Butler's place in his team's pecking order instantly became a non-issue. He wasn't giving up the ball to Embiid or Simmons, he wasn't obsessed with his paycheck behind Karl Anthony-Towns or Andrew Wiggins. No contented young stars uninterested in Butler's candid and self-appointed style of leadership, not with the Heat.
"He's being himself," Adebayo said. "That's what we love about Jimmy, he is being himself. That's hard knocks, that's who he is. And we accept that here."
Spoelstra said: "He doesn't have to make any apologies for who he is. We love him for who he is and what he's all about. He impacts winning. I think everybody in the league has always known that. It's not about stats. It's not about anything else. He cares."
Spoelstra and Butler spoke about the night the Heat recruited him and how, over dinner, neither the coach nor Riley got a chance to make their formal pitch. He clicked with their style and plan, assuring them he was "in" before the money talk.
"More than anything, they wanted me to be here," Butler said. "They told me, like, 'Yo, you're the guy that we want. We're coming after you'. To be wanted, that's what anybody wants in the world, not just basketball."
Anyone familiar with Butler's back story - being tossed out of his house by his single mother as a teenager in Tomball, Texas, then clawing up rung by rung through Marquette to a shot at the NBA - understands how important the Heat's sense of home is to him.
Adebayo said: "When Jimmy came into this team, he wanted to get in where he fit in. He didn't come in like, 'This is my show and this is how I'm going to do it. This is my way or the highway'. He came in and bought into the system. He didn't care if he scored."
Butler is the best player on a championship contender, and any sceptics should be officially done underestimating him.
It's a futile exercise debating where Spoelstra ranks in the pantheon of active NBA coaches. Some would say that four consecutive trips to the Finals from 2011 to 2014, with championships in 2012 and 2013, cemented Spoelstra near the top before this season even began. Lottery finishes in 2015, 2017 and 2019 might pump the brakes on that, along with the "he only won when he had LeBron" slights.
That's why getting back to the Finals this year - without James and buddies Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh doing the heavy lifting the way they did on Spoelstra's first four trips - is such a credit to him.
Instead of the game's dominant 'Big Three', Spoelstra and the Heat did it with one all-NBA third team player (Jimmy Butler) and assorted parts that fit. The Heat play hard, they put defense first, they innovated as needed (the zone defense that dug Boston a 3-1 hole), they spread the offense around and they really do seem to put outcomes before egos.
There's no way that all happens if not for this coach - with, in this case, the complete support of the 'Godfather', team president Pat Riley, upstairs.
There seemed to be genuine appreciation from Spoelstra for Dragic's work with Miami not just this season but for the past six. That's how long he's been on board, arriving as James was exiting in the summer of 2014. The Slovenian point guard has been a consummate pro through the ups and downs - like Bosh's abrupt retirement due to health issues - in Miami since.
The Heat had promised him better and now, reaching the Finals, made good on it.
"This was a promise that Pat [Riley] and I made to Goran Dragic six years ago, that we would have a contending team," Spoelstra said. "No one would know those turn of events, a bunch of events that we couldn't control, and he stayed with it. Stayed with it and we are able to build some solid pieces around him."
Now 34, an All-Star in 2018 but stuck in the trainers' room with injuries in his Miami stint, Dragic never has played this deep into a postseason. It's hard to imagine him sounding more thrilled by winning The Finals than my reaching one.
"It's unreal," he said. "I'm full of emotions. I'm happy. I've been waiting for this for a long time, for 11, 12 years and finally I'm here."
It's a big deal to all three of them.
