Leonard drops the hammer on Butler’s gift
The irony was not lost on The but plenty of patience was.
Because for all of Meyers Leonard’s 7-foot, 260-pound hulking presence, which has led to the nickname of “The Hammer,” the Miami Heat center found himself humbled this week when it came to the best of intentions by teammate Jimmy Butler.
By now it has been well chronicled that Butler had basketball hoops sent to his teammates amid their sheltering in place during the new coronavirus pandemic.
Hammer,
Except … there was the caveat of often-daunting “assembly required.”
That where Leonard picked up the story Tuesday on “Tobin and Leroy” on 790-The Ticket.
“It … was … a … nightmare,” Leonard intoned syllabically. “Shout out to Jimmy. I’m thankful for the hoop.”
Then came the rest of the story.
“It was incredibly difficult,” he said of the project he undertook alongside wife Elle at the Miami Beach home they’re renting from former Heat center Hassan Whiteside.
“I’m no handyman, but I’m not an idiot the either,” Leonard said. “We were lacking of a couple of tools, and I’m not willing to go in public and be around anybody right now. So I said, ‘Screw that. We’ll make it work with what we have.’
“We had enough to get the job done, but it was a long process. It took us like the vast majority of the middle of our day. By the end of it, I looked at my wife [and] she looked at me like, ‘Wow, we’re both really exhausted right now.’ So I mean, it was hotter than hell outside, but it is put together.”
With appreciation for those who assemble for a living.
“It was actually a pretty difficult task, like very tedious work,” he said. “Just so many different instructions. You have to pay attention to every fine-tuned detail. If you mess something up here … it was more than anticipated.”
The lack of tools required for assembly compounded the task.
“Admittedly, they said to use a mallet and I wondered why,” Leonard, 28, said. “Because there was a point where you had to drive this stake through the bottom of it and put the wheels in. And let’s just say I got annoyed as hell because it didn’t want to go in. So I took the hammer and smacked it pretty damn hard a couple times.
“Unfortunately, I made a small indention or crease of sorts. And I filled the whole damn thing up with water to make sure it’s not going to fall over. We come out two mornings ago, and there’s water all over the damn place. I realized I made a small crack in the damn thing, so we’ll just put a sandbag on the back.
“But I was like getting so damn frustrated. I guess it only makes sense for me to damage the thing with a hammer. But that was the one hiccup, I guess.”
Known for toting a Thor-like silver anvil of a hammer in the Heat locker room, part of the larger-than-life persona that has made him such a refreshing addition to the team after his offseason acquisition from the Portland Trail Blazers, Leonard found himself improvising with a downsized tool.
“I think I would’ve destroyed the entire thing had I used the massive, 55-pound hammer,” he said of his locker-room prop. “But, actually, there’s these random tools where we’re renting a house. There’s actually no hammer in this damn house.
“But my wife’s mother literally got me a bottle opener that’s a hammer. It’s actually awesome. I’ve popped quite a few beers open with it, to be honest with you. But it works as a hammer too, so that’s what I was using.”