Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Butler, Dragic forge tight bond
Butler, Dragic forging close closing chemistry
It was early November. The Miami Heat had just lost by 15 to the Los Angeles Lakers at Staples Center. Jimmy Butler had a team-high 22 points, Goran Dragic a team-high seven assists.
As he dressed, Butler turned to his right to Dwyane Wade, a visitor who did not need a visitor’s pass, and smiled as Dragic sat to his left.
“You’re going to enjoy playing with him,” Wade, seven months removed from retirement, told him of Dragic. “He’s one of my favorite guys.”
It was just six games into Butler’s Heat career. For Wade, it was another assist added to his Heat franchise record.
Because there, Thursday, after moving to a 2-0 lead against the Indiana Pacers in an Eastern Conference first-round series, sat Butler, confirming Wade’s sentiment.
“That’s my guy,” Butler said, “one of my all-time favorite teammates. I don’t know, we just connect.”
Understand, Butler has not said that of many along his tumultuous rides through locker rooms in Chicago, Minnesota and Philadelphia.
But now, with Butler and Dragic playing side by side during fourth quarter, the Heat have a closing combination that has them two victories from the Eastern Conference semifinals.
Butler mentioned their common love of soccer and of unwinding with a beer.
“I think I’m half Slovenian,” he said of the Slovenian former All-Star. “That’s just my guy. He’s just a great human being. He does whatever it takes to win, whether it’s coming off the bench, when he knows that he’s a starter and he knows that he’s an All-Star, or starting like he’s doing right now.
“He’s just so smart, and he’ll do anything, absolutely anything for anybody. But more than anything, he’s a proven winner.”
Recall, the Heat’s post-Wade future was going to be the 7-Eleven backcourt of Dragic and Dion Waiters.
Then it soured between Waiters and the Heat.
But seemingly seamlessly, a new, resounding combination has been cultivated.
Dragon and Buckets. “Me and Jimmy, we have great chemistry,” Dragic said ahead of Saturday’s 3:30 p.m. Game 3 against the Pacers at Disney’s Wide World of Sports complex. “As a team, we have great chemistry.
“One of our emphases before the playoffs was enjoy the game. Enjoy it. Have that smile on your face. That’s what I love to do.”
So when it looked like Butler might need his second wind late in Thursday’s 109-100 victory over the Pacers, there was Dragic with helping hands.
“I saw Jimmy was really tired,” Dragic said of his pantomime. “I gave him CPR, tried to give us some energy and just try to be me.”
The smiles have made the quarantine bubble amid the new coronavirus pandemic a bit easier to endure. But it is the chemistry on the court that has helped sway the series.
“Offensively, we’ve been able to keep it simple and get it to either Goran or Jimmy to make the plays,” coach Erik Spoelstra said. “And you trust that they’re going to get you something good, a clean look.”
The irony is the Heat nearly dealt Dragic to the Dallas Mavericks in order to facilitate the free-agency sign-and-trade with the Philadelphia 76ers for Butler in July 2019.
Instead, a friendship and a partnership was forged for the franchise.
“He’s one of my favorite teammates,” Dragic said recently on the podcast of ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. “And, you know, for me I even talked to some guys. I said, ‘How did it even come out in the media or with the players, that Jimmy’s a bad guy?’ I don’t know. If I’m honest. I don’t know. He wants to win.
“Jimmy’s one of those players, that he’s going to call you out. If you’re not doing your job he’s going to call you out. And as professional players, we need that. He’s our leader. Everybody knows that. There’s nothing personal. He’s here to win and we are here to win. And maybe other organizations, with those young fellas, they couldn’t handle that. And I think they’re wrong.
“I love him for that. He’s open. He’s honest.”