Jimmy Butler fires back after Heat’s ‘underdog’ label in the NBA Finals
The Miami Heat have done the seemingly impossible. Jimmy Butler and company took down arguably the best team in the NBA this season in five games and went on to beat the Boston Celtics as well advancing to the NBA Finals for the first time since the LeBron James era.
Although the Heat has shown its grit and legitimacy in being in the Finals, Miami still isn’t getting much credit nor much of a chance against the mighty Los Angeles Lakers led by LeBron James and Anthony Davis. Despite being labelled the underdog once again, Butler is biting back by claiming the Heat aren’t the underdog this time around, via ESPN.
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“A really good team,” Butler said Tuesday, during the NBA’s annual Finals media day, of how he views the Heat entering this series. “That’s it. A really good team. Not going to say that we’re any better than anybody else, but I just don’t think that we’re underdogs. I don’t.
“So what that nobody picked us to be here? That’s OK. Pretty sure nobody is picking us to win, either. That’s OK. But we understand that. We embrace that, because, at the end of the day, we truly don’t care. We’re just going to go out here and compete, play together like we always have, and I’m going to see where we end up.
“But at the end of the day we’re going to do this our way, the Miami Heat way, and that way has worked for us all year long.”
Read: Jimmy Butler a Hurdle to Overcome for Favorite Lakers
With the Lakers having the star power with Davis and James, it doesn’t come as much surprise that the Lakers would be the overwhelming favorite in this NBA Finals matchup. However, the Heat has been doubted since the beginning of the NBA bubble with even the Brooklyn Nets having better odds to win it all.
One thing is for certain moving forward, the Heat thrives in their role as the underdog and may continue to do so as they have nothing to lose going into this series against LeBron’s Lakers.
