NBA fans now know what to expect from Jimmy Butler when he steps onto a basketball court.
They know about his confidence, swagger and braggadocio. They know if his team wins, he will be right there to remind you that he told you so.
But that wasn’t the young man who Marquette head coach Buzz Williams saw step on the court in the summer of 2008.
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After a season at Tyler Junior College, Butler was the first recruit Williams, now the head coach at Texas A&M, signed at Marquette. Butler didn’t take an official visit to the university and had never been to Milwaukee until the first day of summer school.
At that point, the 19-year-old, who was homeless at age 13 in Tomball, Texas, a Houston suburb, was not the man you see confidently leading the Heat through the NBA playoffs. Rocking baggy jeans and a bandana, he was far more likely to be described as “quiet” or “country” by his teammates than a future NBA All-Star or even a future starter at Marquette.
“I think Jimmy did an incredible job of looking around and paying attention,” Williams recently told The Athletic Wisconsin. “I think Jimmy did a really good job, because of his IQ, of being like, ‘Whoa, man, I got a lot to learn. How can I fit in? And how can I help?’ ”
At Marquette, Butler started down the path to stardom that now has him just one win away from an NBA Finals with the Heat, but he didn’t trek that path on his own. He was nudged in that direction by Williams and his teammates: Wesley Matthews, who Butler just eliminated from the NBA postseason, and Jae Crowder, who once again plays alongside him.
During several conversations via Zoom during the postseason, all three traced their success in large part to their time starring for Marquette.
The 2010-11 regular season was not kind to the Golden Eagles. They won just half of their Big East games (9-9), finishing 11th out of 15 teams in the conference. Marquette may have missed out on the NCAA Tournament without picking up victories against Providence and West Virginia in the Big East Tournament. Those two wins secured the No. 11 seed in the East Region.
In their first tournament game, the Golden Eagles upset No. 6-seeded Xavier to set up a tough matchup against conference foe Syracuse. With their season on the line, Butler and Crowder made all the winning plays Marquette needed to send the Golden Eagles to the Sweet 16 for the first time with Williams at the helm.
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None of which surprised their head coach.
“No matter what I asked of them or our staff asked of them, they were always first in line,” Williams said. “They were first in sprints. They were competing. Jimmy and Jae went at one another’s head every single day. Every single day and practice was as intense as a Big East road game.
“Those guys competed at a high level to win, not because of the drill and not because of who the head coach was. I think how we went about things accentuated who they were and I think that led to our success, but, man, that was why we won. That was why we won.”
With just over 2 minutes remaining against Syracuse, it was a 3-pointer by Crowder that tied the game. On the next possession, Butler stole a post entry pass. After an empty offensive possession, Butler and Crowder forced Syracuse into a turnover. Butler then drove into the middle of the Syracuse zone and created an open 3-pointer for Darius Johnson-Odom, who nailed it, giving Marquette the lead for good.
The Golden Eagles lost to North Carolina in the Sweet 16, but Butler had shown enough in his three years at Marquette for the Bulls to select him with the first round’s final pick in the 2011 NBA Draft.
While Butler fought for playing time in his first NBA season, Crowder blossomed into a star at Marquette. Originally recruited after two seasons of junior college ball, Crowder won 2011-12 Big East Player of the Year by scoring 17.5 points and grabbing 8.4 rebounds per game and leading Marquette to a 27-8 record.
Despite relatively low external expectations for himself and the team heading into the season, the Golden Eagles made a second consecutive Sweet 16 appearance.
“Jae Crowder did not receive a vote,” Williams said. “Fifteen teams in the Big East at that time. Jae Crowder did not receive one vote by one head coach for preseason all-conference. Not one.”
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That disrespect, though, did not last. Crowder joined Butler in the NBA when the Cavaliers selected him No. 34 overall in the second round of the 2012 NBA Draft and then traded him to the Mavericks. While the current Heat teammates put in the hard work necessary to get themselves to the NBA, their path to success might not have been as clear without the work of Matthews, who came before them at Marquette.
Butler had just arrived on campus, while Matthews was figuring out how to make sure his college days ended on a strong note. The do-it-all senior was a team leader as one of the “Three Amigos” with Jerel McNeal and Dominic James.
The trio had brought the program back to the NCAA Tournament after two down years following Dwyane Wade’s early departure to the NBA, but they weren’t going to get a chance to write their script with coach Tom Crean, who bolted to Indiana. Instead, they played for the 36-year-old Williams, who was getting his first opportunity to run a major college program.
“He was pretty much co-head coach,” Williams said of Matthews. “He was really, really over the top graceful with me.”
Matthews made a huge impact as an initiator and scorer on offense and a lock-down defender, but Williams quickly learned Matthews’ leadership might be his most valuable asset. As he felt out his new team, Williams learned he could lean on Matthews when he needed guidance on leading the players he inherited from Crean.
“Like ‘Wes, I’m not sure what I’m supposed to say,’ ” Williams remembered. “‘What do we need to do?’ Coach, we need to do this, this and this. ‘Okay, let’s do this, this and this then. And Wes, if that doesn’t work, we’re going to be in a bind and we’re going to lose.’ Coach. It’s gonna work. ‘Okay, well, y’all do it.’ ”
And, for the most part, the Golden Eagles did it. They went 25-10 in Williams’ first season and earned a No. 6 seed in the NCAA Tournament. And while Matthews played a starring role, putting up 18.3 points, 5.7 rebounds, and 2.5 assists per game, Butler started to make an impact coming off the bench, averaging 5.6 points and 3.9 rebounds in 19.6 minutes per game and appearing in all 35 games.
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“I honestly think Jimmy was a sponge,” Williams said. “The one thing that I think is underrated about Jimmy is his intellect. Jimmy is incredibly smart.”
And Matthews lead by example, which helped Butler immensely during their single year together at Marquette.
“Wes set the tone for us, in the sense that he came into the league as an underdog and showed what it takes to make it,” Butler said recently.
Despite going undrafted, Matthews worked his way into the rotation of Hall of Fame and Jazz coach Jerry Sloan. Watching Matthews cover Lakers legend Kobe Bryant in the Western Conference semifinals showed Butler that there was a path to the NBA from Marquette.
“He set a great example for me,” Butler said. “We’re the underdogs, and we can play in this league for a long time, as long as we work and as long as we do what our team needs us to do and we impact winning. … D-Wade set the tone for everybody. (Steve) Novak did it. (Matthews) was huge for us.
“He came in as a defensive-minded guy, doing all the small things. I came in and did that. He just said, ‘Start adding to your game. Start adding to your game.’ And then you know that you belong, and you become more and more comfortable. And he was the first example of that, man, so we’re forever in debt to him. He’s a great dude, a hell of a player.”
Crowder has been in the NBA for eight years now, one fewer than Butler and four fewer than Matthews. While Butler has reached the highest level of stardom, all three have brought similar things — toughness, intensity, versatility — to the table for each team they’ve played for in the last decade. Some might be surprised to see them find so much success in the NBA, but Williams is left wondering why their eventual success wasn’t more obvious to talent evaluators.
“The thing that’s astonishing to me looking back at it is there has to be some value placed on winning,” Williams said. “Because kinda sorta, wherever Jimmy and Jae and Wesley have been, they won more than what was expected. I think that’s a piece to this puzzle as well.”
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As Butler and Crowder hound opposing offenses together with the Heat, the youngest member of the Marquette trio finds himself thinking back to those college days.
“It’s been good playing with Jimmy, alongside my college buddy,” Crowder said. “We played in college for a year, so it’s good to rekindle that flame a little bit and just push each other and help each other as much as possible on the court.”
Their chemistry was on full display as the Heat dismantled Matthews and the Bucks, 4-1, in the Eastern Conference semifinals.
In Game 3 with 2 minutes, 20 seconds left, the Heat were leading by just four points when Butler drove to the basket from the right wing, got to the baseline and jumped in the air looking for an open teammate. He whipped a bounce pass into the hands of Crowder waiting on the left wing.
As his old Marquette teammate rose and fired from deep, Butler put his right hand in the air in celebration as he ran up the floor.
“I know 99 (Crowder’s jersey number). I’ve seen him take that, make that shot 500 times a day, literally,” Butler said when asked why he put his hand up before the ball was even shot. “I think everybody, everybody knew that Jae was making that shot.”
Crowder did make the shot, the Heat won Game 3 and Miami later finished off the Bucks in the series. But Butler and Crowder aren’t done yet, as they continue to make winning plays in the Eastern Conference Finals against the Celtics.
And Butler, that quiet, country kid, is no longer silent. With his college running mate by his side, he is loudly telling and showing the whole NBA world why he deserves to be exactly where he is right now.
(Top photo of Jae Crowder and Jimmy Butler: Garrett Ellwood / Getty Images)