Jimmy Butler recently said he is not worried about making the Hall of Fame, and Skip Bayless said that’s okay because the Miami Heat star doesn’t belong in it anyway.
Butler this week told NBA TV that even if he was voted into the Hall of Fame, he wouldn’t attend the induction ceremony. He was speaking prior to Game 5 of the NBA Finals, which Miami wound up losing to the Denver Nuggets to fall short of the championship.
Butler was the primary reason the Heat started rolling in the playoffs as the No. 8 seed. The 33-year-old had an incredible first round against the top-seeded Milwaukee Bucks, averaging 37.6 points per game. His average was boosted by an incredible 56-point game in Game 4 and 42 more points in the Game 5 clincher.
He injured his ankle during the second-round victory over the New York Knicks but then helped the Heat get by the Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference Finals. Butler scored 28 points in Game 7, when the Heat avoided becoming the first NBA team to lose a best-of-seven series after taking a 3-0 lead.
The NBA Finals did not start off well for Butler and certainly ended sooner than the Heat would have liked. He managed just 13 points in Game 1 but scored at least 20 points in each of the remaining four games.
It seems unfair for Bayless to base his view of Butler’s Hall of Fame candidacy solely on 10 recent high-level playoff games when the Marquette University product may have been injured. And, of course, it is unknown what Butler might accomplish in the future, especially if Miami makes good on a quest to add another star player.
But if Butler were to stop playing right now, his case would be based on his recent playoff success, with two trips to the NBA Finals, another visit to the conference finals and eight series wins since 2020. He has been named to six All-Star Games, five All-NBA teams and five All-Defensive teams during his 12-year career.
Butler has given no hint at stopping anytime soon, so maybe he can make Bayless update his position somewhere down the road.