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“Jimmy Butler Proved To Me He’s A Stud”: Charles Barkley Calls Out The Unfair Criticism Heat Star Had To Face Despite Carrying His Team vs Jayson Tatum’s Celtics

Published 06/01/2022, 10:04 AM EDT

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USA Today via Reuters

Jimmy Butler and the Miami Heat lost their chance to reach the NBA finals again after their last appearance in 2020. The series saw a lot of amazing plays throughout, even though injuries slowed it down a bit. The Heat and the Celtics were evenly matched up, and it required 7 games to find a winner. Even in game 7, it went down to the wire. 

Finally, Jayson Tatum and the Celtics came out as winners and lifted the Bob Cousy Trophy. And Tatum won the Larry Bird Eastern Conference Finals MVP award. While it was fitting for a Celtics star to win the inaugural Larry Bird MVP award, Butler was equally good. A lot of fans loved the way he carried his team, even with his knee injury.

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And in game 7, with the game on the line, Jimmy Butler went for the win when the Heat was trailing by 2 points. But the shot didn’t go in and the Celtics ended up winning the Conference Finals. And a lot of people have already given their props to Jimmy for going for the kill even though he missed and lost the game.

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Philadelphia 76ers legend Charles Barkley also showed his appreciation for Butler during his podcast appearance for the “Dan Patrick Show”.

Charles Barkley shows love and respect for Jimmy Butler

During the podcast, Dan Patrick asked Chuck whether he had any problems with Jimmy Butler’s 3-point attempt at the end of the game. And Barkley said that he didn’t have a problem with Jimmy’s missed shot even though the Heat lost.

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Charles said, “…He is the only reason they were alive in this series. And it’s a wide-open 3. So I had no problem. Hey Jimmy Butler, he proved to me man, he is a stud man. What he did in game 6 and tried to do it in game 7, I got nothing but love and respect for Jimmy F-ing Butler as I call him…”

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Dan Patrick said that Butler wanted the big moment and admitted that he loves the guy who takes that shot. But said that he wasn’t sure whether Al Horford wanted Jimmy to take the shot and left him open. Chuck said that he thinks Horford couldn’t have closed out Jimmy even if he wanted to. And reiterated that he liked the shot Jimmy Butler took. 

He also said that if that shot had gone in, it would have been a different conversation altogether. And that people would be talking about moving Jimmy up the ladder.

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‘Jimmy Buckets’ certainly gave his all during the series. He struggled to score with his knee injury from game-3 to game-5. But erupted in game-6 for 47 points in 46 minutes, playing through the pain. In game-7, he scored 35 points and played every minute of the game. Surely he can’t be blamed for the Heat’s series loss.

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Written by:

Bagavathi Eswaran

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Bagavathi Eswaran is an NBA writer at EssentiallySports. He has been playing the game of basketball for more than 20 years now and has also been following the NBA for more than 10 years. After not being able to go pro, this former college player decided to join the IT industry.
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Edited by:

Arunaditya Aima