Jimmy Butler and the Miami Heat's incredible playoff came to an end Monday night. The Denver Nuggets, with three wins in a row to close out the series, clinched their first NBA title in franchise history as the eighth-seeded Heat finally ran out of gas.
Ahead of Game 5, however, Butler sat down with NBA TV and showed he's been studying at the LeBron James School of Narrative Control by announcing that he has no interest in the Basketball Hall of Fame and would not even attend the ceremony if he was ever inducted.
James, of course, claimed that he was contemplating retirement after his Los Angeles Lakers were swept by the Nuggets in the Western Conference finals, and successfully changed the topic from that defeat to his future. Butler's comments read like an effort to follow suit with a likely elimination on the way.
Jimmy Butler says if he's ever elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame, he won't attend the ceremony.
— NBA TV (@NBATV) June 12, 2023
"I'm not worried about the Hall of Fame. ...It's an honor, it is, but I could care less." pic.twitter.com/1xxtYKNMdL
The full exchange:
Jared Greenberg: Your good friend, Dwyane Wade, is going into the Hall of Fame in a couple months. Have you allowed yourself to think what it would ever mean to you to be elected into the basketball Hall of Fame?
Butler: Yes I have.
Greenberg: And, what do you think?
Butler: Don't care.
Greenberg: You don't care whether you're a Hall of Famer?
Butler: No I don't.
Greenberg: Do you think your resume--
Butler: Still don't care. Honestly speaking, could care less. If we're being brutally honest, if I was selected to the Hall of Fame, I'm not going.
Greenberg: You're not going to accept it?
Butler: No, no, no, it's like the festivities and all that, I just wanna go put my feet in the sand somewhere.
Greenberg: You wouldn't accept that honor, the greatest honor in basketball?
Butler: It's an individual thing. I'm not for the individual type of stuff. I'm really not. I'm like a team guy.
Greenberg: But even after it's all said and done and you've--
Butler: No! I don't wanna go. I'm not worried about the Hall of Fame. I promise you. It's an honor, it is, but I could care less.
Butler is almost certainly going to make the Hall of Fame. He's already made six All-Star Games, five All-NBA and All-Defensive Teams, won the Most Improved Player award in 2015 and boasts multiple signature playoff moments. Assuming he continues at this pace for a few more seasons -- he'll turn 34 in September -- he should add more accolades to his name. As it stands, Basketball Reference gives him a 73% chance of making it.
And when that happens, he will almost certainly be there, regardless of what he's saying now.
