Jimmy Butler III | Warriors 2025 End of Season Interview

Jimmy Butler III | Warriors 2025 End of Season Interview

Hey, Jimmy. In in Miami, you were the guy and then there’s a a mid-season change for you. You come to the Warriors. You’re eager to say you can be the Robin to Steph’s Batman. Maybe you’re not the number one here. What did that require of you? Did you think that there was any selflessness there? Because you’ve always been Jimmy. You got to be who you were here, but what did you think about this kind of different environment? Um, I mean, I feel like everybody’s so unselfish here that anybody could be playing any role on any given night. Um, but I’m I’m completely content with who I am as a basketball player, the way that I play the game, and to come here and know that I’m um I’m second to Steph. That’s I think that’s a really good thing actually when you talk about one of the greatest players ever played this game. Um, and I get to come here and be his sidekick um, for a couple more years hopefully. Um, it’s uh, it’s just refreshing. And then you got some really high level young talent that that want to do well, that want to be great, and then the energy is at an all-time high. I mean, I don’t think there’s too much more that you can ask for. Kind of in the same vein of that question, when it came out that you were about to be traded or there was talk about wanting to be traded and the Warriors were one of the teams that was mentioned, reports came out that you didn’t know necessarily if this was the team that you wanted to be on or if it was somewhere else. Now that you’re inside here of the franchise and you’ve played with these guys for amount of time that you played with them, whether that’s second to Steph, his right-hand man, and then being able to be in the locker room with the guys that you’ve been in. Looking back, you said you had your joy back playing basketball, but if you can kind of dive deeper into what it was or how you feel about being the fact that you landed here with the Warriors. I mean, the way that reports go, it’s all um one person said this, one person said that cuz I don’t ever really talk to the media, so you’ll never know what’s really going on. Um but to end up here is great. um to know that you know Dre Steph called me and and and talked to me about what was to happen in the future and then just being inside of this organization see how great it is, how everybody wants everybody to be great. They’re they’re looking out for your best interest like health-wise, basketball-wise to where you can play basketball at a high level. Um and then we just got some really good some really good dudes. I I truly enjoyed um learning um from each and every one of these individuals about who they are. I know who they are as basketball players because I’ve been in this league for a while, but um what makes them tick, what makes them go about their family, about how they grew up. Um I think that’s the best part of of anything in life is is getting to know people on the positive aspects of There’s my phone. Tell you what, right? Um, yeah. So, that that’s the the good thing. And I landed here and we hit the ground running and I’m I’m comfortable. I’m happy. I got my joy back as Buddy would say. And, um, I’m I’m very fortunate to be here. Jimmy, when you got I’m sorry. Obviously, uh, things went very well when you got here. uh things look like it was seamless, but how much was just on the fly? You know, how much was almost just kind of improvise and what more is possible when you have an off full off season, full training camp? A lot of it was, you know, I come into the squad, we’re on the road. Um we still on the road, then we had Allstar break, come back on the road. So, it was like everything was moving so fast. I didn’t have a home to be in yet. I didn’t have anything. I had my cars. I didn’t have my wardrobe. I don’t have a problem wearing aloe every day, but I was in aloe every single day. Um, and then, you know, you get more and more comfortable. The good way are comfortable, not complacent comfortable. Um, but now you got a whole off season. Uh, I get to be around my guys in offseason. We’re going to get to vacay together. We’re going to get to um get our kids together. We’re going to get to train together. Um, build even more chemistry and then take this thing into training camp and into this next year, this next season. and um do what we set out to do. Are there plans for you to work out with Steph? Yeah. Yeah, of course. Not just them, but like everybody else. Um I don’t know, you know, I heard the end of Draymond’s thingy up here. I don’t know where all everybody’s contract situations are, but I would like to think that they’re still my friends. So, I still get to go hang out with them and work out with them and go see them in the offseason. I look forward to it because not only does it help me know them as a basketball player, like I said, I get to see where they’re from. I get to see what they like to do. Um, and I get to like live a day in a life. Jimmy, this is a such an unique like system and all that. As you go into the offseason, what do you think you’ll you’ll work on and how will your off season change at all if uh it hasn’t changed for years on years. Uh, a little bit of everything. Um, but more than anything, it’s my main goal in offseason is getting getting to know my people. I I mean it like if I can show them that I am there for you like outside of basketball and I’m actually getting to learn you and know you, um, it makes a huge difference on the court cuz it’s not just about basketball. You need to know, you know, be able to tell when they’re not right, when something’s going on in their mind. Um, so that’s my main goal. go and spend time with my people, my teammates as often as I can. And then basketball is it becomes quite easy actually. Jimmy, how compromised were you health-wise in the last couple of games? Fine. Uh, everybody’s nicked up at that point in time of the year. Uh, I’ll be okay. I guess I got a lot of time to recover now, though. And also, what now that you’ve been with this team for a while, what do you think this roster needs going forward to to improve? I don’t I don’t I don’t really get into the whole roster talk, you know? I think whoever we have, we go out there and compete. I believe we always have enough. Um, for sure, if we got Steph out there on the floor with us, um, I don’t get into the roster. I don’t know. Uh, I think everybody here, we are just very, very fortunate to be able to hoop for this organization with this group of guys and I don’t think you take for granted that it could be the same next year, it could not be the same next year. Who knows? But in the right now, uh, you just go out there and compete and whoever we have is who we’re going to have. Jimmy Steph has talked about how your contract, his contract, Draymond’s contract, and Steve Kerr all aligned together for the next two years. Do you see this as a two-year window for a championship? Uh, yeah. And then if we win some, it could be longer than that cuz I still think that um we have a lot of great basketball left ahead of us. Um, I don’t I don’t think this age thing is anything. The way that everybody’s taking care of their bodies, doing right, um, I think the potential is there. So, with this full season we got coming up ahead, I think we’ll be able to find out.

Jimmy Butler III met with the media to recap the Golden State Warriors 2024-25 season.