Jimmy Butler Reflects on Heat Career: 'We Had Some Fun. I Think That's All We Did'
At least for now, Jimmy Butler isn't overly sentimental about his six-year run with the Miami Heat.
"We were alright," he told reporters about his former team after the Golden State Warriors' 124-115 loss to the Atlanta Hawks on Saturday. "We didn't win nothing like we were supposed to. So I don't know. We made some cool runs. We had some fun. I think that's all we did."
Given how bitter the divorce between he and the Heat proved to be, it shouldn't be a surprise Butler is looking at his time in South Florida so matter-of-factly. And if a winning a championship is the sole barometer for success, then his Miami tenure was a failure.
Viewing the Butler and the Heat's partnership through that singular lens does a disservice to what they achieved, though.
Miami made the playoffs for five straight years after acquiring the six-time All-Star in 2019. That included NBA Finals appearances in 2020 and 2023 and a trip to the Eastern Conference Finals in 2022.
Few franchises can match that consistency over the same time frame.
Butler's assertion the Heat "didn't win nothing like we were supposed to" also belies their general expectations from year to year. Here's where Miami ranked in the preseason title odds from 2019-20 through the current campaign, per Basketball Reference: 14th, sixth, 10th, eighth, seventh and 13th.
And it was largely through the Herculean efforts of Butler that the Heat even advanced as far as they did in the playoffs. He averaged 24.7 points, 6.8 rebounds and 5.7 assists in 38.5 minutes per contest over 64 postseason appearances with the team.
"Playoff Jimmy" became part of the NBA lexicon because he was going above and beyond so much.
The Warriors head to Miami on Tuesday for their first game against the Heat since the Butler trade.
For now, the 35-year-old clearly isn't a mood to wax poetic about his previous stop. Once he has retired from the NBA altogether and the drama surrounding his trade has long been forgotten, maybe Butler will be able to appreciate the fact he and the Heat did more than have "some fun."
