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Tempestuous, confident, calming, different: The riddle of Jimmy Butler’s Heat leadership

ira winderman, south florida sun-sentinel

DENVER — From the moment the Miami Heat courted Jimmy Butler in NBA free agency on that summer day in 2019, they were aware of both what they could be getting — and what they could not avoid.

Through the uneven days at the end of his tenure with the Chicago Bulls, to the tempestuous times with the Minnesota Timberwolves, to the one-foot-out-the-door relative brevity of his stay with the Philadelphia 76ers, the talented two-way forward stood as a complicated mix of prickly, perplexing and, most significantly, productive.

Or, as confidants would say, Jimmy being Jimmy.

And yet with the Heat poised to appear in the NBA Finals for the second time in Butler’s four seasons with the team, a series that opens 8:30 p.m. Thursday against the Denver Nuggets, there also is an appreciation of a unique form of leadership.

No, no towel waving. No claiming of the coach’s chair during timeouts. None of the cheerleading that often gets confused for guidance.

Instead, more “gamemate” than teammate in terms of being there for those in the same uniform from the opening tip to the final buzzer. And then just as likely to be off on his own, with his own inner circle, not out of arrogance, but rather comfort.

“He leads in a different way than normal people would think he would,” center Bam Adebayo said. “It’s hard to explain. So I just would say different.”

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Attempt to force Butler into a traditional leadership role, the kind that also involves following a script, and he is likely to push back, as coaches Fred Hoiberg learned in Chicago and Brett Brown in Philadelphia.

But allow Jimmy to be Jimmy, as Heat coach Erik Spoelstra has, and you wind up over four years with a single, isolated, courtside blowup, as the two had a season ago.

“Jimmy,” Spoelstra said, “leads with everything — his spirit, his soul, his competitive nature. It’s all out there on his sleeves. That’s what we love about him.

“I mentioned to him, when I first met him, and then in the subsequent years after that, he never has to apologize, ever, for who he is and what he is about. It’s the same language as us, and that’s why we’re all following him.”

At times, what Butler puts forward can be off-putting, until it is recognized that it is not personal.

For Heat forward Duncan Robinson it has been an ongoing adjustment.

“I mean,” Robinson said, “you could write a full piece on his leadership style. He definitely does it in his own way. But we all feel when Jimmy has a sense of urgency, and certainly never question that.

“We fully expect him to be the best version of himself. And when he’s like that, we all tend to follow suit.”

As teammate and friend Kyle Lowry noted, it’s not only a basketball thing.

“He’s one of those guys,” Lowry said, “who competes at literally everything — cards, Uno games, whatever games they play — he’s just the ultimate competitor.

“And having a guy like that on your team, you feel good about every situation you’re going to be in. He brings the best out of himself in these moments.”

And, as a leader, Butler makes sure to bring out the best in others, as well, in his own way.

“We’re all grown men. We’re all pros and everybody knows what everybody is capable of,” Butler said earlier this season. “I don’t think that you need to pat anybody on the back. I’m not the pat-you-on-the-back type anyways.”

But he is appreciative.

“Nobody ever complains,” he said. “They always do exactly what you ask of them to do, which is why you want to play with guys like that, which is why they are the reason we win so many games.”

A tempestuous temperament, and yet also a beautiful mind.

“He definitely has a calming presence,” Robinson said of the awareness that Butler is leading to a better place. “Experience will do that. The work that he puts in will do that, just in the sense that he knows he’s prepared for moments.

“But he couples that with a fiery competitive spirit as well, once you see him between the lines. So definitely a unique individual on how he goes about it. But we’re happy he’s with us.”