In the Miami Heat reel, one can visualize Dwyane Wade handling an imaginary baton to Jimmy Butler for him to complete the relay. Just as D-Wade retired from the sport in 2019, a flamboyant Jimmy entered the Heat organization. 

Jimmy’s debut year with the South Florida-based franchise was nothing short of a dreamy tale. They reached the NBA Finals as underdogs and forced game 6 on the big Lakers side. This showed Dwyane’s endorsement of Jimmy in bright light and as a result, their relation further strengthened. 

Dwyane Wade revealed rare known events around him and Jimmy Butler

In a recent interview, the 38-YO legend spoke at length about his relationship with Jimmy. He expressed, “If you have a great vet, it changes your life… So when I went to Chicago, me and Jimmy [indiscernible] each other right away. Obviously, we had a market tie and a background, but we weren’t close. I will go back and I will play with those guys, but we weren’t really close. He played with the Bulls, and we had that Bulls/Miami thing going on.”

The three-time champion with Heat left the franchise in 2016 to sign a 2-year $47.5 million deal with the Chicago Bulls. His 13 years of experience were enough to attract Jimmy’s curiosity to learn from a phenom. 

Wade further detailed, “when I went there, me and Jimmy got close and Jimmy was like ‘I wanna learn everything I can’. And I gave Jimmy the game. Everything I had learned from the vets before me, everything I learned from my experience, me and Jimmy sat down and I just got into Jimmy. I started to understand who he was… Whatever Jimmy was into, we did it. What he wanted was the same thing that I was doing. I was like ‘what does success looks like for you?’ He was like [signaling towards Dwyane].” 

The Miami Heat flag bearers have more things in common

Very recently, Jimmy G. Buckets signed a multi-year shoe deal with Li-Ning to become the international brand’s face. This is the same Chinese brand that signed Dwyane Wade for a lifetime deal in 2018. Earlier, Wade was associated with the Jordan brand, which he left for Li-Ning in 2012. 

Their initial connections to Marquette, Wade’s role in Jimmy’s hiring by the Heat, and now this deal, it all leads to the fact that they share a healthy bond. To reinstate the same, the all-time highest scorer for the Miami Heat, Wade added, “he has taken some of the stuff that I’ve done… He has a blueprint of somebody that he can say there is a friend and a brother, and… he’s following a path that seems successful, so I’m happy for him. He got into a great place with Miami. I love Jordan brand, he love Jordan brand… Hopefully, he has a similar success that I’ve had and hopefully even more. Well, he got more money in Heat than me already.”

Evidently, Jimmy let go of a $190 million max contract from the Sixers to take the four-year $141 million deal from the Heat. So obviously, the stakes are high because he has a veteran to make proud and a deal to justify.