Miami Heat shooting guard Jimmy Butler had the playoffs of his life this past NBA season. For Butler though, the offseason means more basketball work.
Bandanas and buckets season has just begun.
Wait, what? Bandanas? Buckets? In season together?
Yes.
It is quite a bizarre pairing. On first thought, any synonymity between these two nouns is impossible to come by – other than of course, the letter “B” that initiates each word. To make things even more ironically peculiar, the man who coined said phrase in the first place has a last name that begins with a “B” as well.
The man? Butler. Jimmy Butler. His game? Basketball. Bandanas and buckets? Jimmy’s personal favorite time of the year, a time where he completely disappears from the public scope and enters into a mode he catchily labels “grimy season.”
And he thoroughly enjoys wearing bandanas while taking part in it.
So there’s the connection. And it all starts with a spontaneously quirky, humor-driven, 6’7″ basket-scorer known as “Jimmy Buckets.”
At this point, though, the entire basketball landscape is fully attuned to the greatness that is Butler (unless they’ve been under a rock throughout this year’s playoffs, which isn’t particularly far-fetched considering the current circumstances we’re all facing).
Nonetheless, Butler made brazenly sure that his name was included among the best in the NBA with the scorching performances and jaw-dropping mammoth stat lines he was able to post for the Miami Heat this past postseason.
Be it an ex Machina juggernaut triple-double performance in the biggest Finals games of his life or calmly sinking game-winners against opponents in previous rounds, Butler was the epitome of rising to the occasion in critical moments.
But it wasn’t just crunch time in which he flourished. Butler was a consistent staple for Miami all year, bringing more than just swagger and attitude to a South Beach team desperate for redemption after the LeBron James/Dwyane Wade glory days.
His fit was quintessential with Erik Spoelstra’s inventive mind, and the right cast of supporting characters was all they needed to catapult their franchise back to relative standing in the east and then some.
But despite his team’s first Finals appearance in nearly a decade, and the first of his own career, Butler’s far from satisfied.
He reflected after falling to LA:
"“I told Coach Pat. I told Coach Spo. I’m here to win one. I didn’t do my job. Moving forward, I have to hold up my end of the bargain.”We’re gonna learn from this. We’re gonna get better. We got guys that already want to get back in the gym, and get to working at this thing. That’s what we do here. We’re definitely moving in the right direction.”"
He closed with one definitive forthcoming statement: “We’ll be back.”
These are the words from a man who just led his team in points, rebounds, assists, steals and blocks during their finale, all the while averaging 43.0 minutes of court time a night.
The Heat couldn’t choose a better person to lead their charge.
And Butler is putting his money where his mouth is. The day after the Heat’s Game 6 loss, Butler was back in the gym and posted photographic evidence to prove it.
This dude Jimmy Butler’s already back in the gym pic.twitter.com/nHrDUVsIQe
— NBA Retweet (@RTNBA) October 13, 2020
Not that he needed the extra validation or anything. He’s a rabid workout machine,with an undying never-say-never disposition. To what extent exactly? Well, try this on for size: Butler’s typical day begins promptly at 4 AM. After a good stretch, hydration and a meal, the fun part of his morning kicks off.
The fun: wind sprints, core training, beach excursions (and not vacation ones, I’m talking footwork on the hot, sandy terrain) balance and lateral movement, core work, football drills (on occasion), the treadmill, reactionary and eye quickness and some medicine ball volleyball to top it off.
Then he gets to play basketball.
Butler hasn’t been satisfied with currency since he’s arrived in the association. There’s always another level of ascension he believes he can climb to.
And with his team primed to make a whirlpool splash in free agency next offseason with returning young studs eager to add to their stellar breakout campaigns, Jimmy may not be the only reliable bucket in South Beach for long.
One thing is for certain though: no one’s going to outwork him, and he’ll be ever-devoted to ensuring that.
For there’s hardly ever a moment that the man’s not striving to perfect his craft. So be it the time I took to write this, or the minutes you spent reading it, it’s not a foregone conclusion to imagine that Jimmy Butler – bandana and all – was somewhere in some hidden location doing what he does best: putting in work.