“He Got More Money”: Dwyane Wade Turns Pages from His Relationship with Heat’s Jimmy Butler

In the Miami Heat reel, one can visualize Dwyane Wade handling an imaginary baton to Jimmy Butler for him to complete the relay. Just as D-Wade retired from the sport in 2019, a flamboyant Jimmy entered the Heat organization. 

Jimmy’s debut year with the South Florida-based franchise was nothing short of a dreamy tale. They reached the NBA Finals as underdogs and forced game 6 on the big Lakers side. This showed Dwyane’s endorsement of Jimmy in bright light and as a result, their relation further strengthened. 

Dwyane Wade revealed rare known events around him and Jimmy Butler

In a recent interview, the 38-YO legend spoke at length about his relationship with Jimmy. He expressed, “If you have a great vet, it changes your life… So when I went to Chicago, me and Jimmy [indiscernible] each other right away. Obviously, we had a market tie and a background, but we weren’t close. I will go back and I will play with those guys, but we weren’t really close. He played with the Bulls, and we had that Bulls/Miami thing going on.”

The three-time champion with Heat left the franchise in 2016 to sign a 2-year $47.5 million deal with the Chicago Bulls. His 13 years of experience were enough to attract Jimmy’s curiosity to learn from a phenom. 

Wade further detailed, “when I went there, me and Jimmy got close and Jimmy was like ‘I wanna learn everything I can’. And I gave Jimmy the game. Everything I had learned from the vets before me, everything I learned from my experience, me and Jimmy sat down and I just got into Jimmy. I started to understand who he was… Whatever Jimmy was into, we did it. What he wanted was the same thing that I was doing. I was like ‘what does success looks like for you?’ He was like [signaling towards Dwyane].” 

The Miami Heat flag bearers have more things in common

Very recently, Jimmy G. Buckets signed a multi-year shoe deal with Li-Ning to become the international brand’s face. This is the same Chinese brand that signed Dwyane Wade for a lifetime deal in 2018. Earlier, Wade was associated with the Jordan brand, which he left for Li-Ning in 2012. 

Their initial connections to Marquette, Wade’s role in Jimmy’s hiring by the Heat, and now this deal, it all leads to the fact that they share a healthy bond. To reinstate the same, the all-time highest scorer for the Miami Heat, Wade added, “he has taken some of the stuff that I’ve done… He has a blueprint of somebody that he can say there is a friend and a brother, and… he’s following a path that seems successful, so I’m happy for him. He got into a great place with Miami. I love Jordan brand, he love Jordan brand… Hopefully, he has a similar success that I’ve had and hopefully even more. Well, he got more money in Heat than me already.”

Evidently, Jimmy let go of a $190 million max contract from the Sixers to take the four-year $141 million deal from the Heat. So obviously, the stakes are high because he has a veteran to make proud and a deal to justify.