Jimmy Butler has been described as one of those fiery and passionate stars. With an “old school” mentality and an unmatched competitive spirit, it’s often that he’s on one end of a rather heated exchange.
Apparently, those exchanges existed during practice as well.
In a story by ESPN’s Zach Lowe, he described the relationship between Butler and his ex-teammate Jae Crowder, who would reportedly trade “uncomfortable” bits of trash talk during team practices last season.
“The two had started trash-talking during five-on-five action in practice toward the end of the seeding games. It got heated, and they cleared the court to settle it with a series of one-on-one games that lasted somewhere between 30 minutes and an hour. The player with the ball had to start either on the wing or at the top of the key, and could take only a certain number of dribbles before shooting.
The trash talk became so profane, and so personal, it was borderline uncomfortable, team sources said. Almost the entire Heat contingent stayed to watch. ‘I’ve been busting your a– since school!’ Butler taunted, according to Crowder. (It got much worse than that.) Everyone loved it — and appreciated Crowder for bringing an edge to practices. (Butler won the final game.)”
From what we can gather by the story, it seems that Crowder was really the only one who could keep up with Jimmy Butler’s fierce competitiveness.
He left to join Phoenix that summer and is now just 3 wins away from winning the title.
In Miami, they were unable to repeat the success they saw in 2020. Whether it was the departure of Crowder, the team’s health, or just an overall flaw in the team’s identity, they got swept early by the very squad they beat a year earlier.
Butler will undoubtedly put pressure on his team and the guys upstairs to improve and prepare for the ’21-22 campaign.
