Being a teammate is the starting point. It means a willingness to work with others. It is, in many ways, the NBA bare minimum.
Being a game mate is what differentiates Jimmy Butler, committing to make teammates better, willing to carry them on his back when needed.
It is why Butler and the Miami Heat find themselves in a better place than many expected as April turns to May, ready to open their best-of-seven Eastern Conference semifinal playoff series Sunday at 1 p.m. against the rival New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden.
“I’ve said it a lot about how I feel about Jimmy, that he is us, we are him,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said, with the Heat beginning their second-round preparation Friday at the Kaseya Center. “I respect him so much as being such a unique, world-class, elite competitor.
“A lot of players can play the game of basketball in this league. He needs to win. That’s a different language.”
It is a language that resonates in the locker room.
Because once the game clock goes on, the lights shine brightest, he becomes the one you want on your side, a one-man fighting chance.
As he was in the shocking first-round five-game upset of the top-seeded Milwaukee Bucks. And as he hopes to be again, perhaps is needed to be again, against the Knicks.
“He’s desperate and urgent and maniacal and at times psychotic about the will to try to win. And he’ll make everybody in the building feel it. And that’s what he is and we are him.
“And that’s the way we operate, as well. And sometimes the psychotic meets the psychotic and it gets a little bit whatever.”
In other locker rooms, at other stops, it, at times, was viewed as too over the top by coaches and teammates, management.
With the Heat, there is a shrug, an acceptance that for the music that blares when music shouldn’t be blaring, the media appearances that are made on his schedule, having his own personal circle in the same orbit as the team’s operational circle.
Such are the exceptions made when you get 56 points to go up 3-1 on the Bucks and then 42 to close out the Bucks.
“He is everything about what we believe in, in terms of conditioning and work and preparing your body, all of that,” Spoelstra said.
“This is not something that just turns on like people are talking about. There’s a lot of training and working year round, particularly in the offseason.”
With the fit aligned to the team.
“He’s all about the right things,” Spoelstra said Friday. “He takes competition very seriously, as we all know. That’s probably the understatement of the year. He’s wired like us. So he’s going to always take care of his body. And that’s going to be a priority, making sure that he’s ready to compete at a high level. He’s extremely intelligent. So he understands game plans. He understands what we’re trying to do, what they’re trying to do.”
Considered an acquired taste by some, to the Heat, Butler is the perfect recipe for playoff success.
With the Knicks well aware of what is coming.
“It doesn’t surprise me. I’ve seen him do that. He’s an unbelievable talent,” said Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau, who coached Butler with both the Chicago Bulls and Minnesota Timberwolves. “If I’ve had a relationship with you, I want all those guys to do well, except when we play him. I know what he’s trying to do. And I know what we’re trying to do.”
Butler wouldn’t tolerate talk of taking the series against the Bucks as being an upset and takes a most-favored approach against the Knicks, as well.
“We’re going to be in better shape than other teams, because we practice all the time during the year and we pride ourselves in that,” he said. “I like our chances against anybody.”
The value system does not change, even as the stakes rise.
“If I’m scoring, if I’m defending, rebounding, whatever it may be, we’ve just got to win,” he said. “Win at all costs.”
A message that now gets to resonate in the Eastern Conference semifinals.
“He is very serious about winning,” Spoelstra said Friday. “And that’s a very common language for us. I guess the short way to answer that would be, it didn’t take long to figure out how serious he was about winning and how aligned it was with us. And you want young guys coming into the league to model that kind of approach, to practices, games, all the things that lead up to it.”
Eastern Conference semifinals
(No local television on Bally Sports Sun)
Sunday: at New York, Madison Square Garden, 1 p.m., ABC.
Tuesday: at New York. Madison Square Garden, time TBA, TNT.
May 6: at Miami, Kaseya Center, time TBA, ABC.
May 8: at Miami Kaseya Center, 7:30 p.m,, TNT.
May 10*: at New York, Madison Square Garden, time TBA,. TNT.
May 12*: at Miami, Kaseya Center, time TBA, ESPN.
May 15*: at New York, Madison Square Garden, 8 p.m., TNT.
* – if necessary.
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