Miami Heat superstar, Jimmy Butler, seems to think that he let us down by not winning it all. Well, we did want it, but he did all that he could to make it happen.
The Miami Heat is an organization that encourages its players to take on a ton of responsibility. Like everything else, the more personal something is to you, the more likely you are to give it your all.
With that notion in mind, Jimmy Butler takes everything personally, because he does most things with a supreme effort, will, and want to about him. That leads us here though.
Recently, Butler made comments that illustrate this concept perfectly. Here is a recent quote from after the NBA Finals by the Miami Heat superstar, via ESPN’s Nick Friedell.
"This is what my team needed me to do, the organization asked of me,” Butler said. “I told them that I would win them one and I didn’t hold up my end of the bargain, so that means I got to do it next year. I told Coach Pat, I told Coach Spo I’m here to win one. I didn’t do my job, so moving forward, I got to hold up my end of the bargain."
He seems to be “beating himself up”. That is totally the Jimmy Butler thing to do.
For him, it’s probably a form of motivation, as that’s how he ticks. We get it.
The Miami Heat didn’t finish the job, but that’s not on Jimmy Butler. He seems to think it is though and that’s just wrong.
However, we would be doing ourselves a disservice if we didn’t address it. Jimmy Butler did not let any of us down.
That goes for Pat Riley, Erik Spoelstra, his teammates, fans of the game, fans of the league, and surely us, the fans of the Miami Heat. Some of us (Me… Me… Me!) thought that they could compete for an NBA title as soon as this season, but no one thought that they were shoo-ins to win it all.
What Jimmy Butler and the rest of his team were able to do was special in itself and although we aren’t guaranteed to ever see the Miami Heat there again, they are technically a year ahead of schedule. This season was never supposed to be the year that they competed for a title.
It simply happened a year earlier than any of us expected. Besides and even in the Finals games though, Jimmy gave us all he had.
Here is a quote from Miami Heat head man Erik Spoelstra that perfectly encapsulates what I mean. It’s from the same ESPN piece mentioned earlier.
"Jimmy has a superstar competitive spirit to him,” Spoelstra said. “If you try to evaluate him or put him in a conventional box of how you view a modern-day basketball player, you’re totally missing the boat on JB. He is a winner, he is a leader, he is a motivator, a mentor and just a supreme competitor. And when you get to this level, I think so many people forget about that, the competition and what you can bring out of an entire franchise when you’re wired to that level of fierce competitiveness."
Jimmy Butler is the ultimate competitor and literally woven together of the fabric that holds the Miami Heat Culture in place. He is the walking, talking, breathing embodiment of the culture, he personifies what it means to play for the Miami Heat.
That’s why he shouldn’t beat himself up, he didn’t let us down. He likely knows that in his heart of hearts, but with the way he is set up, he uses stuff like this to motivate himself.
We love it and we wouldn’t have it any other way. But to give a true assessment of his season and how it made us feel, while also quoting the great one and our Godfather in Pat Riley, his year made “us dream”.
That’s what it did. It didn’t let us down… at all. Thank you Jimmy!