As Jimmy Butler walked off the floor of the Sixers’ arena on Thursday night, having just punched his ticket to the Eastern Conference finals for the second time in three years, he asked himself a rhetorical question a few Philly fans have probably considered at some point over the last three years: “Tobias Harris over me?”
Butler, of course, played for the Sixers before they traded him to the Heat in the summer of 2019. Three years to the day of the last game he played for Philadelphia, Butler returned the favor by knocking out the team that chose other stars to pair with perennial MVP candidate Joel Embiid. And he did so in the midst of the best postseason of his career.
It’s hard to overstate how good Butler has been during these playoffs. The Heat have mostly flown under the radar after two sleepy series marred by injuries, and it’s been a disservice to the brilliance of Butler. The 32-year-old has been neck-and-neck with Giannis Antetokounmpo in terms of biggest two-way impact during the postseason. And particularly on the offensive end of the floor, Jimmy Buckets has shined like never before—better even than his run to the Finals in the Bubble.
