Miami Heat star Jimmy Butler is in the midst of his second NBA Finals in four seasons, and he's hoping to have soccer superstar Neymar on his side against Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets.

Butler has grown a number of relationships with international athletes, with Brazilian phenom Neymar at the top of the list. He even took to Instagram after Jimmy Butler won the Eastern Conference Finals MVP trophy ending the caption with, ‘Four More.'

Jimmy Butler Neymar Heat NBA Finals Nuggets
CP

With a bevy of international media in attendance for the 2023 NBA Finals, Butler was asked about what the support from Neymar means as he and the Heat sit four wins away from an NBA Championship.

“That's my guy,” Jimmy Butler said of Neymar. “Part of my routine on game days and off days is I watch all types of sports of people who inspire me to be great. He's one of them. So, I've probably seen each one of his highlight videos on YouTube way too many times, Sasha [Alexander Zverev] tennis, Carlito [Carlos Alcaraz] tennis, you go down — Serena, everybody. I love greatness in any way that you view it.

“He's obviously a close friend of mine, so I pay attention to him a lot. But with him in my corner, I think I'll be okay.”

When asked if he hopes to see Neymar at one of the NBA Finals games, Butler was confident he'd see his friend.

“Oh yes, he'd better be there,” Butler joked as he pointed to the camera. “So Ney, I know you're looking somewhere. You'd better be there.”

Game 1 of the NBA Finals went to the Denver Nuggets by a score of 104-93. Jimmy Butler finished with just 13 points on 6-of-14 shooting in the game, but did add seven rebounds, and seven assists on the night.

If the Miami Heat is going to have a chance in this series, Butler is going to need to be exceptional every single night. Maybe having Neymar around Miami for Games 3 and 4 would help with that.