Miami Heat big man Bam Adebayo and small forward Jimmy Butler are already really close friends and teammates in Butler's first season in South Beach.
Adebayo says Butler isn't the “a**hole” the media portrays him to be. Butler had rocky stops with the Chicago Bulls, Minnesota Timberwolves and Philadelphia 76ers, but Adebayo says he loves everything he's seen from Butler with the Heat:
“I didn’t really know him,” Adebayo told Andrew Sharp of Sports Illustrated. “So you just look at the news. It made Jimmy look like a bad dude. Like an a——, honestly.
“When I really got to know him, I was like, ‘He's not an a—— at all!' He just holds himself to a high standard, so he wants to hold his teammates to a high standard. That's a big reason he's helping. He fits us. He's a Heat guy.”
Butler’s hard-nosed style of play and personality is perfect for the Heat since president Pat Riley loves that type of basketball. All the players in Miami are aware that Butler won’t be afraid to call them out if he sees something he doesn’t like and they never take offense to it.
In the post-Dwyane Wade era, Riley has found his new franchise player. Riley and head coach Erik Spoelstra are hoping Butler can lead the Heat back to the promised land one day.
Butler is averaging 20.5 points, 6.8 rebounds and 6.2 assists per game on the season for the Heat. He’s shooting 45.2 percent from the field, 24.6 percent from beyond the arc and 83.8 percent from the free-throw line.
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