Jimmy Butler’s reputation has preceded him for most of his career. He’s quickly gone from being a leader and a winner to a toxic presence in the locker room, at least in the eyes of the media and some fans. He’s burned some bridges with his former teams, and things haven’t always ended well between him and his teammates.
However, Butler’s pedigree in the NBA isn’t up for debate. He’s made every team he’s been on better, and while he may ruffle some feathers along the way, his approach has yielded some results.
That’s why, now that he’s left another team in an ugly fashion, the former Miami Heat star wanted to set the record straight. In an exclusive interview for NBC Sports Bay Area’s “Dubs Talk” with Monte Poole and Raj Mathai, he talked about his personality and his reputation as a difficult teammate.
Jimmy Butler shuts down the narrative about his personality
“I will say I’m always about winning at all cost. So when it doesn’t stay about winning and it becomes about many other things, I’m not here for it. If it’s about winning the championship I’m all for it. If it’s not and there’s any other agendas, yall won’t like it cause I don’t care,” Butler said.
The Warriors already have that type of leader in Draymond Green. There were some legitimate concerns about how two alphas would mesh in the locker room, but so far, they’ve gotten along just fine.
Steve Kerr’s team got off to a slow start to the season, and having Stephen Curry out with an injury only made things more complicated. Butler and Green seemingly took some shots at Jonathan Kuminga for his desire to be traded earlier in the season, and now it seems like he’s out of the rotation.
As such, Butler will be instrumental in holding down the fort in Curry’s absence. Like Green, he’ll be one of the team’s primary playmakers and defenders, but he will also be asked to do plenty of the heavy lifting on offense.
Butler is the type of player anybody would love to go to war with, especially when things are going the team’s way. When the team isn’t winning, on the other hand, things can get sour pretty quickly.
The Warriors are trying to win another championship in the Curry era, and they hope that Butler’s tough love and relentless work ethic and mentality will be what they need to get back to the mountaintop. If that’s not the case, that trade could come back to haunt this team for years to come.