Before his arrival to the Golden State Warriors, Jimmy Butler was the face of the Miami Heat franchise.
Butler was named to two All-Star games, and three All-NBA teams during his time in Miami. He averaged 21.0 points per game over five and a half seasons, and reached the NBA Finals with the Heat in 2020, and 2023. Butler became a playoff sensation with the Heat, earning the nickname “Playoff Jimmy.”
However, as has been par for the course of Butler’s entire career, his tenure in Miami ended sourly. After a long, drawn out saga of Butler seemingly mailing it on game day, and being suspended from the team several times, he was traded to the Golden State Warriors at the trade deadline.
Butler delivers positive comments about change to Golden State
Butler averaged 17.9 points per game in 30 games playing alongside Stephen Curry, and helped propel the Warriors to a first-round playoff victory. Butler recently spoke with Ann Killion of the San Francisco Chronicle about the change to Golden State.
“All that noise, all that chaos paid off in a major way. I'm lucky to be part of this phenomenal organization,” Butler said. “Everywhere starts off great, but then you know someone has to be the bad guy, and it gets to be me. I'm always the one doing something unbearable all of a sudden... But that's OK. I get to play in this wonderful league, with amazing teammates. But being here, they've only got one goal. To keep hanging those things up on the wall. Ain't no hidden agendas.”
Butler and the Warriors now enter this season as championship contenders in the Western Conference. The team will be dark horse contenders to secure their fifth title since 2015 as the Warriors are officially all in.