Getty Images Heat star Jimmy Butler.
The Miami Heat eliminated the Philadelphia 76ers with a convincing Game 6 victory on Thursday and Jimmy Butler took some added pleasure in eliminating his former squad.
After dropping 32 points to wrap up what was a dominant series against the Sixers, Butler took a shot at Sixers forward Tobias Harris on his way to the locker room.
“Tobias Harris over me. Tobias Harris over me,” Butler was caught yelling on the way to the locker room.
“Tobias Harris over me??”
– Jimmy 😅
There’s some obvious history between Butler and the Sixers, with the franchise deciding not to build around the six-time All-Star following a trade for him during the 2018-19 season, instead shipping him to Miami in a sign-and-trade. Philadelphia kept their young superstars in place with Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons and gave Harris a five-year, $180 million max deal.
Harris has been good, but not great, while Butler has thrived in Miami, helping make the Heat a perennial contender with his gritty play and leadership.
“Jimmy is a great competitor,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said of Butler. “I think he’s one of the ultimate competitors in this profession. So I think a lot of things get lost in translation. As this league sometimes gets younger I think it ends up being about some things that are not about winning.
“He competes on both ends. He is an extremely efficient offensive player. And when his only focus is just about driving a team to win, all the other things are just irrelevant — that a lot of players and teams get caught up in. He’s not caught up in that stuff. It’s just about doing whatever it takes to win the game.”
Tobias Harris Called Out Sixers’ Mental Toughness
The drive to win was sorely missing in the Sixers locker room, seemingly from everyone but Embiid, who battled to be on the court despite multiple injuries.
“That part of it I don’t think we have that,” Harris said, talking about the team’s mental toughness. “At times, for our group, too many things just affected us as a whole. We drop our heeds too much. Our body language at times is crappy.”
Embiid agreed with Harris’ assessment after the season-ending loss.
“When you talk about a physicality standpoint, they dominated us on the glass. They got what they wanted,” Embiid told reporters. “I think that mental toughness could be a part of it, but definitely the physicality wasn’t there.”
After missing the first two games of the series, Embiid returned to help even the series. The MVP runner-up averaged 19.8 points and 9.8 rebounds.
Jimmy Butler Showed Love to Embiid Following Series
Butler did take a moment after the series to show some love to Embiid, who he built a bond with during his short stint in Philly.
“I love him,” Butler said in his on-court interview. “I’m proud of him. Yes, yes, yes, I still wish I was on his team. I definitely love the Miami Heat though man. I’m glad that I’m here but I got so much respect and love for Joel Embiid.”
The feeling is clearly mutual from Embiid.