109 Jimmy Butler Quotes On Work Ethic, Heart, Competition & Basketball
Jan 12, 2024
Motivational Jimmy Butler quotes:
Jimmy Butler is a professional basketball player who currently plays for the Miami Heat in the NBA.
Butler was drafted in the first round at pick 30 by the Chicago Bulls in the 2011 NBA draft. Before joining the Heat, he played for the Minnesota Timberwolves and Philadelphia 76ers as well.
Jimmy is a 6x NBA All-Star, an NBA Most Improved Player (2015) and an Olympic gold medalist for the USA Men's Basketball Team (2016).
Widely regarded as one of the best perimeter defenders in the NBA, Butler has been named to the NBA All-Defensive Team multiple times.
Butler is known for his work ethic, defensive skills, and leadership ability as well as his passion on the court and love for competition (and confrontation).
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Jimmy Butler Quotes About Success And Winning
Through these quotes, Jimmy Butler reveals just how much winning means to him.
He is not as concerned with winning individual awards as he is with having team success and winning NBA championships.
1. "You can lose. Michael Jordan lost, but that doesn't mean he wasn't the GOAT."
2. "Decisions I make, the money, my contract, all of that will handle itself. I don't ever worry about my money. I already have enough money for the rest of my life. It's all about winning."
3. "I didn’t win, so none of the stats matter. We don’t play for stats here. We don’t play for anything else except for the win."
4. "It’s not win or go home, it’s win or win."
5. "It’s whatever it takes, whatever it takes to win. I’ll play however many minutes, I’ll be however tired. But I’ve got to win."
6. "I just don't think there have been many people that have understood how important winning is to me."
7. "I don't like to lose, man. I think that's where it starts for me. If we're not winning games, then I don't smile too often."
8. "I don’t need an MVP. I don’t care about anybody’s opinion. No trophy means anything except the Larry O’Brian. I want to be a champion, man. I mean that."
9. "If your No. 1 priority isn't winning, and people can tell? That's the battle. Now there's a problem between people, because that guy's No. 1 priority is winning, and that guy's isn't."
10. "No matter what, all I want to do is win. I don't care what anybody says, any media outlet, anybody says as a person; the one thing they can't say is that I don't want to win."
11. "I knew that to be successful, I had to be more than a scorer. I had to become a leader. It's not about scoring. It's about doing what my team needs me to do."
12. "You need to focus in on each day at a time, each practice, and then when the games get here, each game home and away. But we never want to look too far ahead."
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Jimmy Butler Quotes About Basketball
Ever since he entered the league, Jimmy Butler has continually evolved as a basketball player.
He's always had the defensive prowess, but he's really developed himself into a scorer over the years as well.
13. "I've changed, and I've learned every single year what to do and what not to do. But I still pride myself on going out and doing the right things. Doing what I'm supposed to be doing on both ends of the floor."
14. "I loved the city of Chicago, and I love the Reinsdorfs. I'm forever grateful for them in taking a chance on me, allowing me to become the player that I am today. It's still incredible to me that I got to hoop in a Bulls jersey."
15. "I just wanna hoop and be out there with my soldiers. Go to war. Try to, to the best of my abilities, help us win."
16. "I want other teams to hate us, you don’t want to play Miami. It’s not going to be easy. It’s going to be a dogfight."
17. "A lot of guys are offensive minded, which is good at some points and times but bad at others - at lots of others. I wish I could say I want everybody to play defense as hard as I do. It's not a reality."
18. "As a player, you look where I've come from, averaging 'X' amount of points, to where I am now, an All-Star."
19. "My job is to go out there and play. I mean, I guess you could guess who I would rather play for. We're not going to sit here and say that that's a huge secret. I mean, whoever they decided to bring in, my job was to help them win to the best of my ability."
20. "Young guys in this league don't understand urgency. These guys don't understand that you never know what the league brings, the times may bring. I think they do understand what it takes to win here, and they continue to learn that."
21. "I'm blessed; I'm fortunate to be able to play the game that I love every single day."
22. "You ask what position I play, I say point guard."
23. "The hardest people to play in front of are my brothers and friends from childhood, because I can never take them seriously. I know when they're sitting in the stands; it's constant jokes. They're just waiting on me to shoot an air ball or dribble the ball off my foot so they can laugh."
24. "The odds are just what they are — numbers. And the way that everybody’s talking about numbers and analytics nowadays, it just kind of angers me anyway."
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Jimmy Butler Quotes About Confidence And Character
One thing Jimmy Butler has never lacked is confidence. He is not afraid to be himself and he doesn't care what other people are thinking.
As Butler mentions below, he draws his confidence from his work ethic and all the unseen hours he spends in the gym working on his craft.
25. "Guys that are young in the league. Guys that you get to teach them your way. It's not a bad thing. It's actually a good thing. It's working for them. Teach them that way, and I guarantee they aren't as stubborn and hard-headed as I was, which sometimes is good, sometimes is bad. But like I always say, I'm not going to change who I am."
26. "We get too lost and caught up in what everybody else is thinking, what everybody else is saying. Then you forget to listen to yourself and your own voice and let all that other outside noise cloud the bright spots that are already in your head."
27. "We say it every year: we are confident; we think we can win a championship, yadda, yadda, yadda. You have all heard it before. But we have to go out there and do it."
28. "The main thing is confidence. I'm gaining more and more confidence to do whatever I want to do on the basketball court, whether it is shooting threes or sprinting to the rim and finishing or ball handling. I'm confident enough because I have worked on it that I am going to do the exact same things in the game."
29. "Whoever I suit up for... I'm going to do my job."
30. "When the game is on the line, your confidence is coming from your work. Everything that you put in every day, that's what's going to come out."
31. "If you don't see what I do every single day, then I can't pay attention to what you say about me every single day."
32. "I know that I’m capable of it. I believe in my skill set and my talent."
33. "There's a lot of people that think I'm a terrible basketball player, so it's just gonna piss me off. And if it's people who think I'm good, I'll be happy. I'm just not gonna read it at all and stay content in my own mind."
34. "I wanna be that glue guy: I want to be a guy my team and my coach can count on. That's what I want to be."
35. "Keep going, always keep going, if you make a mistake, forget about it, get back and let’s try to run the next play."
36. "It’s not about proving them wrong. It’s about proving myself right."
37. "We’re just going to be stuck in complacency if we worried about somebody else consistently. That for one, is not healthy. How you going to be worried about somebody else so much all the time?"
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Jimmy Butler On Speaking His Mind And Being Himself
As you can tell from the following quotes, Butler is not afraid to be himself or speak his mind.
He is comfortable in his own skin and he doesn't worry about what other people think about what he says or does.
38. "I don't change the way that I play. I love the game of basketball, man. I ride with these guys in this locker room. They know that. If I've got something to say to them, I will say it. You may not like the way that it comes across. That's fine. But that's who I am."
39. "I always speak my mind. Whether it be something that's going on in the world, something on the basketball court, or just something I saw with somebody else that's not right."
40. "I'm gonna be me whether you like it or not."
41. "Everybody's so scared to be honest with one another. If you didn't like the way I handled myself in practice, one of the players, come up to me. Somebody say something - anybody. I'm not gonna take it as offense; it's not personal."
42. "If you didn't talk to me to write something, you're just making stuff up. You're going by what you think, what you're assuming. I leave it at that. Read it. Believe what you want. But at the end of the day, if you've got a real question, then just come up and ask me, and see who I am as a person."
43. "I just want to ball. I just want a chance to win a championship. I just want to win. I wake up every day smiling. Why? Because I've got my people around me. I really don't give a damn what anybody thinks about me or what I say or what I do."
44. "Just continue to be who you are. Do what you wanna do to make yourself happy. Don’t harm nobody in the process and try to be the best human being that you could possibly be."
45. "Everybody wants honesty until you’re honest with them."
46. "I’m going to be me and encourage everyone else: Be you. Be yourself. You’re the only one who knows how to do it. You can do it at a high level."
47. "Be who you say you are, and prove that every day."
48. "Expressing who you are does a lot for your mental health. It’s not saying you’ve got a clear mind, but that your mind is right and you’re okay with what’s going on."
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Jimmy Butler Quotes About Work Ethic
Growing up in a small town in Texas, Butler has had to work extremely hard to get to where he is today in the NBA.
He was not highly rated or recruited when he was younger and constantly had to prove that he could play and make it in the league.
Jimmy has certainly earned his success with all the hard work he's put in throughout his career.
49. "I think I’m a little extra at times…but if you do what I do every day and other people don’t go about it that way, I think you might have a problem with it, too. I love my job, I love the game, I love to work, so I’m at it every single day at hours, at times when people don’t want to do it, so I think like, ‘Why doesn’t everybody do what I do?’…but that’s me. And to tell you the truth, here, hell, you always got people trying to beat me to the gym. You always got people that are in here late at night, that are constantly working on their game, studying film, doing all that they can to be the best basketball player that they can for the Miami Heat…we got to work because when the game is on the line, your confidence is coming from your work. Everything that you put in every day, that’s what’s going to come out. I preach that, I live by that, and I’ll continue to be that."
50. "I’m not the most talented, but I’m willing to work harder than anyone else."
51. "Nothing’s free. You gotta go and get it. You gotta work for everything you want."
52. "People don't work as hard as I do. They don't expect the same things out of the game that I do."
53. "I wasn't that good, so I know what the work can get you."
54. "I’ve got a lot of people that really help me to be great and to be ready to perform at the highest level. So all in all, there’s a lot of work that goes into it, like everybody is doing right now, but I think I’ve got the best of the best around me."
55. "I just keep doing the same things I’ve been doing every single day to get me to whatever point I am in life."
56. "Everything that I do is not because somebody said I can do it or cannot do it. It’s because I’m like, You know what? I’m going to do this. I’m going to go prove to myself that I’m going to be able to do it."
57. "I’m not perfect, but I’ll never stop striving to be my best."
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Jimmy Butler Quotes About Competition
If you've watched Jimmy Butler play then you know how much he loves to compete.
He never backs down from anyone or any challenge.
As Butler says himself, he's probably not the best person to try and instigate on the court.
58. "I'm a competitor; I'm in here talking – come at me. If you score on me, I'm gonna tap you on your butt. You got the best of me – but you got to do it every time."
59. "It makes me smile, it does, when people talk to me. I'm like, 'ok, I know I'm a decent player if you want to talk to me out of everybody that you can talk to.' I don't know. It's just competition. I do respect him, though. He's a big part of what they try to do. He switches. He can shoot the ball. I just don't know if I'm the best person to talk to."
60. "I love the game, and I don't do it for any other reason except to compete and go up against the best and try to prove I can hang."
61. "Basketball is always basketball. It’s competing. We know what you’re going to get."
62. "My competitive edge comes from the fact that nothing was given to me."
63. "He started talking to me. I like that. I'm all for that. It makes me key in a lot more. It pushes that will that I have to win a lot more. And it makes me smile."
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Jimmy Butler On Teamwork and Culture
In these quotes, Butler touches on the famous "Miami Heat culture" as well as the value he places on teamwork and team success over individual glory.
64. "I don't like the phrase ‘face of the franchise.' I just want to be a part of it. I think we have a really good team. When we start winning games, it looks a lot better."
65. "We’re just in this together. Everything we do is together. We win together, we lose together, and we love being around one another. I think that’s what makes us special is through the ups and through the downs, we always got each other’s back."
66. "It’s the culture that I hear about all the time. The work that you put in every single day, the winning habits, the winning ways. I mean, who wouldn’t want to be a part of that? I was excited to have an opportunity to come here, to be here, but I mean, when I keep hearing about this culture, I was like, ‘I need that in my life.’"
67. "You’re talking about adversity; I mean, for us, we thrive in that."
68. "You can't be selfish in this game. You've got to know, at the end of the day, that it's all about winning. And when you win, everybody looks good."
69. "I think we're all pros. If we go out there and just play basketball the right way, everything is gonna work itself out."
70. "We believe in one another. We believe in what we put together and we believe in what we do every day."
71. "We celebrate every win, but when somebody else has a great night that nobody expected, I love it. I really do."
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Jimmy Butler Quotes On Playing With Passion And Heart
Butler makes it a point to play with heart and passion every time he steps on the floor.
He gives each game he plays in everything he has.
72. "When you put all your effort into something it’s gonna cover up for so many mistakes. If you’re playing with effort, you care."
73. "I play really hard. I put my body on the line every damn practice. Every day in the games. That's my passion. That's how I give to the game."
74. "I want to play basketball the right way. I’ll do whatever my team, teammates need me to do. If it’s score, if it’s pass, if it’s guard — whatever it takes to get a dub, that’s what I’m trying to do."
75. "You know your body is going to be hurt, but you’ve got to tell your mind and tell your body to cut it out."
76. "I love music as a whole. Country music, hip-hop. I just like people being passionate with what they love to do."
77. "Defense is all about if you want to play or not, if you really take matchups personal. A lot of guys don't. Once again, that's the league that we're in. That's not the league that used to be."
78. "We’re never giving up. We’re going to fight and we’re going to ride with this thing until the wheels fall off. It’s not over."
79. "Play harder. Empty the tanks."
80. "It's the heart that I play with on every single possession. And that's all that it is."
81. "I’ve got to be able to do a lot more. I’ve got to be able to set the tone from the jump, play with the most energy I’ve ever played with. That’s what I’ve got to do: Win."
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Jimmy Butler Quotes About Childhood, Adversity, and Life
Butler doesn't like to talk about his childhood too often, but what he will say is how everything he went through growing up made him stronger and helped him evolve into the person and player he is today.
82. "My whole life, people have doubted me. My mom did. People told me in high school I'm too short and not fast enough to play basketball. They didn't know my story. Because if they did, they'd know that anything is possible."
83. "If you’re doing the same thing every day, you’re definitely going to be comfortable. You’re going to know where you stand whenever adversity hits, or when something gets really, really difficult."
84. "I wouldn't be the guy I am today... the obstacles and everything I had to go through to get to where I am [are what] made me who I am. I wouldn't change any of it."
85. "Whenever you have the right people in your corner that are always wanting you to do great, life gets easier. But also, your dreams seem more reachable and attainable."
86. "I don't need anybody to feel bad for me. I made it. That's another chip that I carry around with me to get me over hard times."
87. "Life works in a weird way so you never take anything for granted. So when you have something, you roll with it. Right now."
88. "When you start thinking too much about yesterday or tomorrow, you get lost, man. I don’t know a lot, but I can tell you for right now, I live my best life in today. One day at time, man."
89. "All the things that I’ve been through, all the things that I’ve learned, all the things I’ve messed up on, I’m not regretting any of it. I’m continuing to live my life."
90. "Now I embrace the hard. I want that every single day. I don't ever want anything to be easy."
91. "I don’t have regrets. There’s not too many things you can change, whether you do it out of anger, fear. I’m not going to regret it because it all plays a factor in who I am."
92. "There’s absolutely no way that the way my life has taken so many turns and how I’ve been OK through the ups and through the downs — man, he’s looking over me like he wants me to be successful."
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Other Motivational Quotes From Jimmy Butler
93. "It's not all fine and dandy, but a smile can go a long way. Show some love, be patient, and this world will be a much better place."
94. "Music is my way of taking my mind away from the game. When I'm singing, you don't got anything to worry about. Don't gotta worry about scoring however many points or winning the game. No matter how good or how bad you are, it's fun."
95. "Do something great for somebody else and just pray that they pass it along to the next person. And for that second, the world is a better place. So you pass it on down the line. You just hope that peace is at the end of that line."
96. "If you just live for it today and you do everything that you can today to be the best, or to show somebody that you love them, or that you care, or that you’re this or that, I think you’re doing right by yourself and by the world."
97. "I've learned enough times in life that saying something is completely different than acting upon it."
98. "Your mind is an incredible tool in a sense that, if you think you can do something, you can, and that same mind that you’re using every single day can help somebody else."
99. "I've become a much better player, so I feel like my voice is heard and taken for what it's worth a little bit more."
100. "Don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t do something."
101. "I like it when people say that I’ve changed. I would agree. I have. Because if you’re not changing, you’re not evolving. That means you’re being stuck. The world is constantly changing."
102. "I want people to come together and talk about life, and teach each other about one another — only good things."
103. "I got to make sure that women are on the same level as men now, because that’s what I’m going to teach my daughter. Anything a man can do, you can do."
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Funny Jimmy Butler Quotes
104. "After I sign my big contract, I'm gonna make my brothers buy me dinner. They need to buy me something for a change. I think I'm gonna get me a house. That's gonna be first. Probably get some new socks. Need some socks."
105. "If you think you can sing, you can sing; that's all that matters. So I'm always singing around my guys, around the team, during warm-ups, because I think people need to hear this voice. I think they deserve it."
106. "I’m not giving nobody free coffee, ever. It’s not going to happen. Except for Coach O [Octavio De La Grana]. Coach O, he gets free coffee."
107. "I play dominoes all the way until I got Bible study. And then I do Bible study. I go to the game. After the game, come home. Dinner. Dominoes until I go to sleep. I'm not joking."
108. "We'll go on vacation, but we don't really care to go see Rome or anything. We just want to play dominoes. We like the fact that we can say, ‘Oh, we went to Rome.' ‘Well, what'd you do in Rome?' ‘Played dominoes'."
109. "I don’t like to brag, but I am pretty good at these coffee things. So, I don’t want to toot my own horn, but toot, toot."
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