Jimmy Butler loves the Miami Heat and has made it a point to listen every day to one of the team’s most revered players ever: Alonzo Mourning.
According to Jorge Sedano, who recently spoke on ESPN’s “The Jump,” Butler spends time daily to speak with the Heat legend to learn from someone who epitomizes the culture that the franchise has established over the years.
Sedano shared what he heard from Butler during an interview with Heat play-by-play announcer Eric Reid.
“[Reid] talked about how every day [Butler] talks to Alonzo Mourning because Alonzo is the vice president with the team. He’s at every practice,” Sedano said. “He’s just picking his brain on the culture, the way things are done there, how to handle the players because he’s more familiar with them than Jimmy is. And Jimmy is really trying to understand from ‘Zo how to be that leader, in that particular organization.”
Butler could not have picked a better former Heat superstar to listen to than Mourning, who was considered one of the most hardworking players in the league during his heyday. Mourning is now an executive with the team and he may have something to do with Butler embracing the organization’s culture so easily.