From the first moments of the game on Saturday night, it was pretty clear that the Miami Heat had no chance. The Heat were a step slow, did not shoot well, clearly not as good as they thought they were, and gave up midway through the third quarter. A team that has obviously taken the lead of Jimmy Butler.
Butler is a fake superstar, constantly yapping about hard-work and the will to win, but only truly caring that the team's world, the team's offense, revolves around him. In a recent interview, he complimented everyone on the team by talking about how much like Jimmy Butler they are. He does a number of things pretty well, but none of them at an elite level, and is the poster child for "not as good as he thinks he is." He's obviously a step or two slower than he was just a few years ago, and would be totally fine as a third or fourth wheel on a championship team. But that's not want Jimmy wants, so he'll be perfectly content being the best player on a team of sixth men and up-and-comers until one of them gets sick enough of his bullshit to say something about it.
Butler has been traded three times in his career, first by the Bulls, then by the Timberwolves, and most recently by the Sixers. If you ask any of those teams if they regret that trade, they'd each quickly and honestly tell you they do not. That is not the kind of thing you say about a star, a top ten player, the kind of guy you can win a ring with. Alas, Butler is quite clearly not that kind of guy. He's blown up every locker room he's been in, most recently the Sixers, and eventually the Heat. This can only happen so many times before the excuses that he makes for himself and are made for him come across as empty as they are. He overrates himself, and is overrated by the national media who doesn't watch him consistently enough to see how unimpressive he is, or account for the fact that he's not good enough to be as big of a malcontent as he is.
The shame of it all was that the Sixers never had to trade for Butler in the first place (though I get what they were going for). The Sixers had, statistically, the best starting lineup in the NBA the previous season with a rookie Ben Simmons, second year Joel Embiid, second year Dario Saric, Robert Covington and JJ Redick. While their performance against the Celtics was disappointing, the team out-performed expectations and had plenty of room to grow. The Butler trade, and subsequent rockiness triggered the Tobias Harris trade, as a hedge against Butler leaving. This triggered the Tobias Harris contract, and limited flexibility moving forward or moveable assets to improve the team. The Sixers started with Robert Covington (on a good contract), Dario Saric (on a rookie contract), two first round picks, two second round picks, Landry Shamet (on a rookie contract) for Josh Richardson and Tobias Harris on a five-year max contract. Richardson and Harris are nice players, but, you know.
Butler came in and predictably threw tantrums toward coaches when the offense didn't run through him enough. This is surprising only to someone who didn't see the same thing happen in Chicago and Minnesota. When the off-court tantrums didn't do the trick, he basically refused to shoot catch and shoot jumpers for a month as an on-court protest. He's the only guy who I've seen Brett Brown unable to say nice things about after he's left. All of that nonsense to watch him dribble the air out of the ball for a few possessions down the stretch in game seven against the Raptors, and then ignore a wide-open JJ Redick in the corner during his glory-layup. And again, a second round exit, something the Sixers proved they could do without him.
There's also the case of the radiation that Butler has seemingly left on Joel Embiid. It's great that Embiid has a friend and a mentor on another team, but should probably stop mentioning Butler after just about every game, as there is little doubt that his coach and (certain) teammates don't feel great when he does it. I know I'll get accused of looking too deep into this, but seeing Joel phone-in-hand and texting (or whatever) while Josh Richardson is ringing the bell and his teammates are cheering him on doesn't seem great. You know that feeling you get when you first start dating someone and you see them on their phone, sort of wondering whether they're talking to someone else? For some reason I'm sure he was talking to Butler.
Embiid is 25 years-old, the kind of age where something doesn't exist unless you post about it on Instagram. But after the biggest win of the year, I guess I'd rather see him posting about his teammates than Butler. He gets a kick out of tweaking people, which I admittedly enjoyed every time he said Sam Hinkie's name or "trust the process" while Bryan Colangelo (RIP) was here. I just don't think tweaking Ben Simmons and Brett Brown is the same as tweaking a guy who literally got hired by his dad without an interview.
I've never changed by tune about Butler, from not wanting the Sixers to trade for him, to begging them to trade him (for Josh Richardson no less) at the deadline last year, to calling him a role player who should sign a deal similar to Eric Bledsoe's, to praying that they did not sign him after the season. I never wanted him here in the first place, and I'm glad he's gone.
The Sixers dismantling of the Heat signaled the true final chapter of the Jimmy Butler story in Philadelphia. The Sixers will chase their dream of winning an NBA title, and Jimmy Butler will chase his dream of making Tyler Herro pretend to look up to him, while his post-prime dwindles during his 4am shoot around sessions. Everyone's happy, and really, that's all I ever wanted.
