Speaker 1: Welcome to this league uncut rule of twenty four hour
Speaker 1: NBA News. This's you lo Chris Haines. It's so time, Markstein,
Speaker 1: It's so time. This league uncut is underway and on fire.
Speaker 1: This should be a good one.
Speaker 2: Hello friends, welcome to another audio dispatch solo. Mark Stein
Speaker 2: speaking to you here. Had to be done, had to
Speaker 2: get out the microphone, had to get out the recording apparatus.
Speaker 2: After what we witness Monday night, Jimmy Butler, people slamming
Speaker 2: home yet again that he is the most underrated player
Speaker 2: in the NBA, certainly the most underrated star. This is
Speaker 2: how we used to talk about Drew Holiday, but it's
Speaker 2: Butler now underrated, underappreciated. We simply do not speak enough
Speaker 2: about how world class this guy is, what a winning
Speaker 2: player he is. Butler had twenty two points in the
Speaker 2: first quarter Monday night against Holiday's Bucks. He had twenty
Speaker 2: one in the fourth. He finished with fifty six, tying
Speaker 2: for the fourth highest scoring output ever in an NBA game.
Speaker 2: Even afterwards, though, I found myself arguing with one of
Speaker 2: the smartest basketball people I know, who shall remain nameless.
Speaker 2: But the gist of the convo I can share that
Speaker 2: and basically it's me arguing with him that I have
Speaker 2: considered Jimmy Butler to be a top ten player in
Speaker 2: the NBA since the Bubble in Orlando. I wrote this
Speaker 2: in The New York Times in October of twenty twenty,
Speaker 2: after Jimmy Butler powered Miami to the finals, and remember
Speaker 2: they took the Lakers to six games, even though along
Speaker 2: the way injuries hampered both bam Adebayo and Goran Dragic.
Speaker 2: My piece in the New York Times at the time
Speaker 2: it was all about how one of the lasting, most
Speaker 2: important takeaways from the Bubble had to be how Butler
Speaker 2: enhanced his reputation more than any other player in the league.
Speaker 2: To me, he had proven that he was a top
Speaker 2: ten player in this league. Still though there are so
Speaker 2: many people all over the NBA map who refused to
Speaker 2: see it that way, including the person I was arguing
Speaker 2: with after this Butler master piece. It's amazing to me
Speaker 2: how often this kind of pushback still comes up. And
Speaker 2: let me tell you something, coaches in the Eastern Conference
Speaker 2: have proven that they are no smarter. Because this is
Speaker 2: gonna go down. This season will be recorded as the
Speaker 2: second season already in Jimmy's career, the second in which
Speaker 2: he was ridiculously snubbed from the All Star Game by
Speaker 2: East coaches and then goes on to earn All NBA status. Now, no,
Speaker 2: I do not have a secret copy of the final
Speaker 2: official All NBA Teams, but trust me, Butler's going to
Speaker 2: be on there.
Speaker 3: He's earning.
Speaker 2: All NBA status this season, and again it's gonna be
Speaker 2: the second time he does so. And look, Butler would
Speaker 2: be the first to tell you his day to day personality.
Speaker 2: It's a lot for some people. That's one of Jimmy's
Speaker 2: pet phrases.
Speaker 3: I'm a lot.
Speaker 2: Headstrong is the polite adjective you hear. Confrontational is the
Speaker 2: adjective that gets thrown around much more frequently.
Speaker 3: That's the one.
Speaker 2: You know, he's a confrontational guy. We've heard that throughout
Speaker 2: Butler's career. But the Heat know how to handle it,
Speaker 2: and they're thriving with Butler as the center of their
Speaker 2: universe for the fourth successive season, and this season, at
Speaker 2: age thirty three, Butler shot a career best fifty three
Speaker 2: point seven percent from the field. He's shooting nearly sixty
Speaker 2: three percent from the floor. Against the Bucks in this series,
Speaker 2: averaging thirty six point five points a game, and Butler
Speaker 2: more than anyone. He's the guy who has steered Miami,
Speaker 2: the number eight seed in the East, to a three
Speaker 2: to one lead entering Wednesday's pivotal.
Speaker 3: Game five in Milwaukee.
Speaker 2: What historically does Jimmy not do well? Apart from shooting
Speaker 2: the three. He's an elite two way player, top shelf
Speaker 2: playmaker for himself and teammates. Now, I know that was
Speaker 2: also a criticism at various points in his career that
Speaker 2: he's not he's too unselfish on offense. It doesn't look
Speaker 2: to take over games. Try tell him that to the
Speaker 2: Bucks right now, who are on the brink of their
Speaker 2: season ending. You know, Jimmy sure look pretty aggressive when
Speaker 2: it mattered most. He just makes winning plays, gets to
Speaker 2: the line, makes his free throws fifteen for eighteen at
Speaker 2: the line in Game four, and just look at his
Speaker 2: time with the Heat. They made the finals in the Bubble.
Speaker 2: They were one shot away from making it back to
Speaker 2: the finals last season. Yes, bus, yes, Jimmy missed the
Speaker 2: decisive three, But I think we know that that's not
Speaker 2: his strong suit and it's probably not the shot he
Speaker 2: wanted to take, but he knew it was the right shot,
Speaker 2: and that moment took it missed it. Okay, they were
Speaker 2: a shot away from getting back to the finals last season,
Speaker 2: but now they're on the brink of becoming just the
Speaker 2: sixth number eight seed in NBA history to upset a
Speaker 2: number one seed. I'll tell you this much, I know
Speaker 2: where to turn when I do want to find support
Speaker 2: for my assertion that Butler's one of the ten best
Speaker 2: players in the league. I know where to go.
Speaker 3: You go to his peers. That's who.
Speaker 2: One of my absolute favorite memories from the bubble, I
Speaker 2: had the chance to sit down with Jimmy for about
Speaker 2: an hour one day. In the hallway of Disney World,
Speaker 2: there was one hallway where reporters could mingle with players
Speaker 2: and coaches and team people. This is remembered during the
Speaker 2: height of cod restrictions, but there was one hallway where
Speaker 2: reporters were allowed to be at the Coronado Springs resort,
Speaker 2: and players had to go through there, getting to meal rooms,
Speaker 2: getting to practice courts, going back to their hotel. It
Speaker 2: was an area that they couldn't avoid us and that
Speaker 2: we were allowed to be, So of course I love
Speaker 2: to hang out there. Chris Mannox of Sports Illustrated he
Speaker 2: did the same. We were constantly bumping into each other
Speaker 2: because we knew that was a great place to see people.
Speaker 2: And so during this sit down with Jimmy, it just
Speaker 2: it was amazing to me how many players from different
Speaker 2: teams stopped along the way to pay their respects. Wes
Speaker 2: Matthews and Pat Connaton from the Bucks, a slew of
Speaker 2: Lakers came by to basically show their respect to Jimmy.
Speaker 2: Rajon Rondo stayed for a while they were teammates in Milwaukee.
Speaker 2: They loved rehashing the series in twenty seventeen when they
Speaker 2: took a two zero lead over Boston in Boston and
Speaker 2: then Rondo suffered the hand injury, and you know, they
Speaker 2: remained convinced to this day that they win that series
Speaker 2: if not for Rondo's injury. Brad Stevens was then the
Speaker 2: Celtics coach. He made sure that Jimmy heard him say
Speaker 2: hello as he passed by. And then I remember Robin
Speaker 2: Lopez then he was a former teammate of Jimmy's in Chicago.
Speaker 2: He was with Milwaukee at the time. He was the
Speaker 2: last in this slew of players to come by and
Speaker 2: say hello. And then as he walked away, Robin turned
Speaker 2: to me and he pointed at Butler.
Speaker 3: And he said, this man is a treasure.
Speaker 2: And I really feel that a lot of NBA players
Speaker 2: see it that exact same way. You see the ongoing
Speaker 2: love fest between Joel Embiid and Jimmy Butler after their
Speaker 2: brief stint as teammates. They're always talking about each other.
Speaker 2: Would not surprise me in the least if.
Speaker 3: We see those guys.
Speaker 2: Hook up together again in the future.
Speaker 3: They're that fond of each other.
Speaker 2: If there's a way it's gonna happen that they end
Speaker 2: up on the same team again, I don't know if
Speaker 2: that's probably not gonna happen in Philly, don't know if
Speaker 2: it's possible in Miami. Certainly don't know how it's possible
Speaker 2: in this new CBA world, but I'm sure they would
Speaker 2: both love to make it happen. So many pros they
Speaker 2: all saw it the same way as I did back
Speaker 2: in twenty twenty in the bubble, and we're seeing an
Speaker 2: even higher level of brilliance now in this series this spring.
Speaker 2: Fifty six points again in Game four on nineteen for
Speaker 2: twenty eight shooting.
Speaker 3: He only needed twenty eight.
Speaker 2: Shots to score those fifty six points, and he did
Speaker 2: it on the night Janis Antetokounmpo made his return to
Speaker 2: the Bucks. We can't overlook this point either. Obviously Miami's
Speaker 2: three to one lead. Do they have a three to
Speaker 2: one lead if Yannis plays more than eleven minutes in
Speaker 2: the first three games of the series. Certainly that's a factor.
Speaker 2: That Jannis could only play those eleven minutes in Game one,
Speaker 2: missed two games with the back injury, comes back with
Speaker 2: the triple double in game four. But saying all that,
Speaker 2: I mean Jimmy eclipse the triple double with what he
Speaker 2: did last night, and he's doing all this without Tyler
Speaker 2: Hero at his side. Heroes out for at least six
Speaker 2: weeks with a broken hand. And if you're not sure
Speaker 2: how big miss that is for Miami, let's not forget
Speaker 2: that no team in the regular season struggle to score
Speaker 2: as much as this Heat team. When I think back
Speaker 2: to that sit down three years ago in the bubble,
Speaker 2: and yes, of course he did. Jimmy Butler had a
Speaker 2: cup of big rass coffee in his hand. He said, quote,
Speaker 2: believe me when I tell you that I do not
Speaker 2: care what people say about me. I truly don't care.
Speaker 3: End quote.
Speaker 2: Believe this, Jimmy Buckets. We're going to talk about you
Speaker 2: today and tomorrow. It looks like we're going to be
Speaker 2: talking about you longer than anyone imagined in this postseason.
Speaker 3: If the Heat can just manufacture.
Speaker 2: That one more win, they need to knock out the
Speaker 2: closest thing to a consensus favorite to win it all
Speaker 2: in Round one of these playoffs, or at least I'm
Speaker 2: gonna talk about you, whether you like it or not,
Speaker 2: because I think you are the most underrated player, certainly
Speaker 2: the most underrated star.
Speaker 3: In the entire NBA, no matter what you think, Jimmy Buckets.
Speaker 2: All right, everyone, that does it for me. Thanks for
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Speaker 3: We'll talk soon, everybody, and that'll do it for us.
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