Butler dives into Heat gene pool
Butler, who ‘already had the DNA,’ dives right into Heat’s gene pool
Alonzo Mourning did not need that face time on June 30 at AmericanAirlines Arena at the start of NBA free agency. He did not need to hear anything from Jimmy Butler to appreciate the fit.
“I noticed the DNA. He already had the DNA, and it was long before he was deciding whether to come here,” Mourning said as the Miami Heat continued preparations for Wednesday night’s season opener against the Memphis Grizzlies at AmericanAirlines arena. “The actual DNA he had, based on our culture, I knew that he would fit in immediately.”
The fit on the court? The role in the offense? The place on defense? Those rarely have been questions during Butler’s first eight seasons. But the temperament? The comportment? The disposition?
It’s as if those needed to be channeled to the proper place to turn tormented talent into at-ease All-Star.
For all that Butler gained with his fouryear, $141 million contract, it’s as if the ultimate payoff has been the culture created by Pat Riley and personified over the years by the likes of P.J. Brown, Bruce Bowen, Udonis Haslem and Mourning.
“For somebody that’s coming in new to this organization, new to this culture, he’s embodied it naturally,” Haslem said. “We understand that it requires a lot and that this organization is not for everybody.
“But it’s who Jimmy is. You see it. And it’s not like he’s trying to show it. It’s natural.”
Having played with Butler with the Chicago Bulls, a pairing predated by their common bond to tenures at Marquette, Dwyane Wade had stressed for years to his friend that he needed Miami as much as the Heat needed him.
“I’ve always told him he’s a Miami Heat culture guy,” Wade said.
Butler long had thought he would be a fit, including a year ago, when he pushed for a trade from the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Now he knows he is.
“I think the best way to describe it is this culture is not for everybody,” he said. “We say it all the time. We say it every day. But for me and for the guys around this locker room, it is what you hear about. You get what you see. And I love it. I think everybody around here loves it. And we’re going to continue to make sure that culture stays that way.”
It is why Butler huddles with Mourning after practices, why he seeks counsel from Haslem.
“I’m just like those guys,” he said. “Got up out of the mud, just worked my way to be where I am. I want to play as long as those guys played. I wanted to win championships like those guys won championships.
“I think we can do it here. I talk to those guys all the time. I want that feeling.”
Having yet to play a regular-season game in Heat colors, Butler already has emerged as purveyor of the team’s gospel.
“This is where I’m going to be for hopefully the rest of my career,” he told NBA TV. “I think I fit here. The way that they work, the attitude that they go about everything, it’s me in a nutshell.”
And yet, it was on that same NBA TV Heat season preview when Kevin McHale, the former Hall of Fame player and successful coach, said it has to be more than words.
“I think Butler has all the skills. He makes big shots. He’s not afraid of the moment. He does a lot of stuff,” he said. “But he’s got to get happy and play good basketball there. If he wants to be the face of the franchise like I think he does, he has to have people rally around him.
“If you’re going to be a top player on a championship team, you’ve got to be the guy that’s bringing everybody together. You can’t be killing your teammate. I think it’s on Jimmy to really just fit in and play well.”
What had been viewed as problematic elsewhere, Butler believes will be embraced in this fourth NBA stop.
“Winning is damn near everything to
“The best way to describe it is this culture is not for everybody.” — Heat guard Jimmy Butler
me,” he said in an interview with Haute Living in conjunction with his move to the Heat. “If I lose, I have a problem, and you have to realize that I have a problem whenever I lose, so you have to learn to leave me alone. I don’t want to be talked to; I don’t want to eat; I want to figure out why we lost and how we can fix it. I know it sounds stupid, but to me, winning is more important than breathing.”
To some, the approach comes off as selfish, arrogant, petty.
To Heat coach Erik Spoelstra it comes off as familiar.
“He’s having an impact right now,” Spoelstra said, “very similar, in my mind, to the way Zo had an impact early on when he joined us.”
Mourning sees it, as well.
“This is how it works: I was the type of guy, I wasn’t about a whole lot of rhetoric, because I felt that my example set the tone of how I expected you to compete. And if you think about J.B., it’s the same thing,” Mourning said, pausing to emphasize each of the next three words. “Lead. By. Example.
“And then when it’s time for you to really express how you feel or to get guys going verbally, then fine. But I think you establish, first and foremost, that you have to earn this, truly have to earn this. You establish the direction you want your teammates to go by your play, in practice, on the court. That’s how you establish it. And I think that he’s doing a tremendous job of that.”
Mourning offered his words moments after a conversation with Butler, as if a passing of a torch.
“Everything is clicking the right way,” Butler said. “We’re in constant communication. They love to work; I love to work. The group of guys that we have love to work, love to be around one another. And that’s all you can ask.”
Even as he knows, and as the Heat know, he will ask for more.
“I can’t wait,” he said, “to really get to work.”