Butler, Jimmy

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      ‘I’m Not for Everybody’: Jimmy Butler on Evolving With the Miami Heat

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      As Butler leads the Heat to the No. 1 seed in the N.B.A.’s Eastern Conference, he said he increasingly sees his role as allowing others to shine.The N.B.A.’s Eastern Conference is up for grabs, and a well-caffeinated Jimmy Butler has the Miami Heat primed to secure a premier seeding down the season’s stretch run. Miami reconstructed its roster in the off-season, most notably through the addition of point guard Kyle Lowry, and has pushed through a rash of injuries, to players including Butler and Bam Adebayo, to sit atop the conference standings.Butler seems to have found a long-term home with the Heat after memorable stints and high-profile exits in Chicago, Minnesota and Philadelphia. In Miami, his characteristic blend of brashness and playfulness has been met with appreciation by a young roster sprinkled with a few battle-tested veterans.Butler leads Miami in scoring, at 22 points per game, but describes himself as a nonscorer who does a lot of everything. He will probably be selected for his sixth All-Star team, but he lists nearly every other teammate as more deserving of a slot.Butler recently spoke to The New York Times about the Heat’s season, how his game and leadership have evolved and his deep coffee appreciation.This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.Miami currently sits atop the Eastern Conference. What is it about this team that people didn’t see heading into the season?I don’t think anybody could predict the amount of injuries we’ve had or the amount of readiness/preparedness that everybody would have if those injuries were to come to light like they did, but I just feel like everybody’s comfortable. Everybody believes in their talent and what they can do while they’re out there on the floor.And then on top of everything else, everybody’s always looking to put each other in the best position, whether you’re a slasher, shooter, passer. I think we just got a nice group of guys that complement each other well.How have you seen your own leadership approach evolve this season?Just knowing how my role may change from game to game — for sure if Kyle’s not out there, because he is the primary ballhandler. But even knowing when you really got to get Duncan [Robinson] going or if Tyler [Herro]’s got it going, you continually feed him, and you just watch these young guys grow. I feel like I’ve made my name, quote unquote, in this league and now it is my job to help others become comfortable enough to make theirs.You recently secured your 10th triple-double in Miami, breaking LeBron James’s franchise record. How has your overall game evolved in Miami these last couple seasons?I think it speaks more to the individuals that I get to pass the ball to, because those are the guys that give me my assists — the guys that pitch the ball ahead for me, or give me open looks or set a great screen for me to attack downhill. That’s where a lot of my points come from, and then crashing the glass, getting on the offensive boards, my bigs boxing out. Whenever they’re down there battling, I get to come over to the top and get the rebound.So, all of these triple-doubles, they definitely come from my teammates, them allowing me to do it. But more than anything, as long as they’re geared toward winning, I can care less if I pass [James’s record] or not. There’s one thing that I haven’t passed him in yet, and that’s the amount of championships he brought to this organization.You’d rather have a game-winning assist than a game-winning shot, correct?Yeah. I’m not a scorer anymore. I’m more of a facilitating guard, and I like it that way. I love it that way, because we got a lot of guys that can put the ball in the basket, so I let them shine, and I just rack up assists.At what moment does a teammate earn that trust, that in your head you know that you can give him the ball when it matters most?I think it is built over time, but you see how many extra passes we make, not just from me to somebody else, but from somebody else to somebody else, to somebody else that they know, if you’re open, you’re going to get the ball. So it’s trust all the way around the board, all the way around the locker room, all the way around the floor — knowing if you’re open, somehow, some way, the ball will find its way to you.Butler credits his teammates for his record-setting number of triple-doubles. “It speaks more to the individuals that I get to pass the ball to, because those are the guys that give me my assists,” he said.Ezra Shaw/Getty ImagesYou, Kyle Lowry, Bam Adebayo and P.J. Tucker make a strong defensive lineup. Have you thought about what that unit could do in a playoff series?Honestly, I haven’t, just because I stay trying to be locked in on the time right now and because a lot of things have to fall into place for that to even happen. Knock on wood. Everybody has to be healthy, and I hope that that is the case, that nobody’s injured, but ain’t no telling if we make the playoffs if we look too far ahead. You need to focus in on each day at a time, each practice, and then when the games get here, each game home and away. But we never want to look too far ahead. Not in this league.Your devotion to coffee became a story line during the N.B.A. bubble in 2020. Why did you decide to recently start Bigface, your own coffee brand?Because I get to do things my way, obviously with the input and help of the individuals that are helping me run this thing, but this brand is a reflection of myself and the people I’m around. If you don’t like it, that’s fine. We’re not harming anybody.I’m not for everybody on the floor, sometimes off the floor, and maybe this isn’t for everybody either. I hope that it is.How many cups of coffee do you drink on a game day?Game day or not, it’s easily seven to 10 cups of coffee per day, just because it gives me time to sit down and think. I really do enjoy making all different types of coffee, and I get a lot done whenever I’m drinking coffee — whether I’m reading a book, whether I’m competing at a domino table or over some cards, just reminiscing about life as a whole or just talking about things that we would like to have accomplished in the future — that being with basketball, that being with Bigface Coffee or that being with any other thing that comes to my mind.How do you sleep at night?I sleep just fine. I get my nine hours per night. I’ve trained my body to be able to do that. If I don’t sleep nine hours, I’m definitely not worth a damn, so with all that coffee being said, I think I’m pretty used to lots of coffee and lots of sleep at the same time. More

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      Kyle Lowry Is Ready to Have His Say, On and Off the Court

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      MIAMI — For a long while, the scowl on Kyle Lowry’s face seemed permanently etched. He used that edginess to rise from meager beginnings in Philadelphia as he scraped for stability early in his N.B.A. career.“I knew I was good,” Lowry said during breakfast at a hotel here. “I knew I was a starter. But I still had to prove it. I still had the chip on my shoulder. I still had to do this, that and the other. And I still play like that.”That determination blossomed in Toronto, where Lowry, 35, provided a foundational steadiness across nine seasons, six All-Star berths and a championship in 2019. But all that came only after he fought for court time and was traded from Memphis, which drafted him in 2006, and then Houston during his first six years in the league.The stage is now set for Lowry to begin the final arc of his playing career with the Miami Heat, who hope that the addition of a veteran point guard with a championship pedigree will launch them back into contention for a title. The Heat journeyed all the way to the N.B.A. finals in the pandemic-paused 2019-20 season, but last season were quickly dispatched by the Milwaukee Bucks.In the off-season, Lowry signed a three-year contract with Miami worth nearly $90 million, joining a retooled team intent on making Milwaukee’s tenure atop the Eastern Conference a brief stay. Lowry was a prized free-agent target after a midcareer span that made him synonymous with the Raptors.“We all were mutually agreed that it was time,” Lowry said of leaving Toronto. “It’s hard to put it into words. It was just time. For me, I knew with Miami it was the right situation, right timing, right place, right people, right everything.”His journey in Toronto started with questions — he was the team’s backup plan after a failed attempt at landing Steve Nash — crested with a championship and ended in a season no one could have anticipated.Lowry was criticized for poor shooting early in the 2019 finals against Golden State but responded with a clutch performance in the championship-clinching victory in Game 6.Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press, via Associated PressThe coronavirus pandemic forced the Raptors to relocate to Tampa, Fla., for their home games in 2020-21. Toronto righted itself after a shaky beginning, only for the season to unravel when Pascal Siakam, Fred VanVleet, OG Anunoby and others missed time because of virus protocols.“The city of Tampa was great,” Lowry said. “It was just difficult because we didn’t know what to expect day by day. We were in fifth place, fourth place. We hit a Covid stretch and then it was over.”Speculation swirled over whether the franchise would deal Lowry, who was on a one-year contract. The Heat, among other teams, made inquiries about acquiring him before the March trade deadline.Lowry had pledged to his teammates before the season that he intended to help them compete for another championship. The team’s dismal record made such a foray unlikely, but Lowry wanted to stay true to his word in seeing the season through.The adage of sports being a business is a truism. Every so often, the reality becomes murkier.In 2018, the Raptors and Masai Ujiri, the team’s president, traded DeMar DeRozan, a franchise cornerstone who, along with Lowry, had brought respectability and competitiveness to the organization and was beloved in the city.Toronto acquired Kawhi Leonard from the Spurs in the trade, immediately won a championship and frayed its relationship with DeRozan. It avoided a potential similar fracturing with Lowry.“Sometimes franchises have to do what’s best for them, but I was in a position where I had say and I had a little bit, I wouldn’t say power — but I had a little bit of, ‘Listen, it’s not going to be a good look if we don’t collaborate on this together,’” Lowry said. “We all agreed that to be on the same page was the best thing to do, and that was that.“With DeMar not having the autonomy of having a decision, I think it was just such a different circumstance. It prepared them to not do that to me.”Lowry finished the season in Toronto and landed with the Heat, anyway. “It’s been really tough for us to see an incredible player like that go,” Ujiri said at a news conference in August. “We knew this was coming. The direction of our team was kind of going younger and Kyle still has these incredible goals.”Saul Martinez for The New York Times “It was just time. For me, I knew with Miami it was the right situation, right timing, right place, right people, right everything.”Lowry is one of several point guards, including Chris Paul and Mike Conley, who are still flexing impactful games in their mid-30s, a quality Lowry attributes to better modern knowledge about dieting and training.“I’ve never been super athletic,” Lowry said with a laugh. “I can dunk and all that, but I still play low to the ground. I’m not explosive. And I know how to not jump when I don’t need to be jumping.”Lowry saw a role for himself with the Heat, a franchise eager for another championship. He had established a relationship with Miami Coach Erik Spoelstra while playing for him at an N.B.A. Africa exhibition in South Africa in 2017. Tampering investigations concerning Lowry’s sign-and-trade deal to the Heat, along with the one that allowed Lonzo Ball to join the Chicago Bulls, are ongoing, N.B.A. Commissioner Adam Silver told reporters this week.In Miami, Jimmy Butler is Lowry’s primary wing mate after he spent years alongside DeRozan — “Smooth,” Lowry said of DeRozan. “That’s my best friend.”And of Leonard: “A machine,” Lowry said. “He gets it done.”DeRozan and Leonard are two of the game’s quieter personalities. Butler, though, is a force, both vocally and on the court. Lowry said Butler often communicates through strings of expletives.“I partly think it’s to get him going, because he’s got to get himself going somehow some way, which is dope,” Lowry said, adding that “some people can’t take it” and think Butler’s a jerk.“Nah, it’s just how he is,” Lowry said. “Everybody has different demands on themselves.”Butler recently told reporters that the team was adjusting to how quickly Lowry got the ball upcourt.“He’s always looking to pitch the ball ahead and get guys in the right spot,” Butler said. “It’s incredible. It’s a blessing, and sometimes it’s a curse because you’ve got to be in some really great shape if you’re out there in what we call the Kyle chaos.”Lowry during a preseason game with the Heat.Lynne Sladky/Associated PressOne day, Lowry expects to retire as a Raptor. Until then, he expects his former teammates to grow into the roles he and DeRozan once occupied. Lowry, for example, faced criticism for missing shots during the first few games of the 2019 finals. He responded with 26 points, 10 assists and 7 rebounds in the Game 6 championship-clinching victory.“Freddy, OG, Pascal, now they have to take the interviews, and they have to do all the media. Because I’m the guy who was like, ‘Yo, it’s on me,’” he said, adding: “They have to take the criticism, and that’s what’s going to help them grow. I want them to be the All-Stars. I want them to be the champions again. I want them to get opportunities to create generational wealth.”Lowry’s maturity has continued away from the court. He once fell into the financial trap of securing a loan before his first professional game.“If I could do it again, I would’ve lived in North Philly with my mom and my grandma until I got an actual paycheck, because then you’re just paying money back,” Lowry said.Among other pursuits, Lowry has made strides in venture capital and investments in real estate and private equity.“I started to get outside of who I was, of being hard-nosed, and I started letting people in and introducing myself,” Lowry said. “My main source of income is basketball, but I have other interests and I have people around me that are doing very well. Why not have conversations and learn about things? Because when you do retire, you have to transition. Whenever that time comes, hopefully not for a long, long time, I’ll be making decisions on running the companies.”The scowl is erased. The chip on the shoulder remains. The chase for Lowry, on and off the court, continues.“You’re happy, but what’s next?” Lowry said. “How do you get another transition? How do you evolve? How do you continue to get better?” More