It seems that everyone is ready for the Lakers to climb to the top, LeBron shouted "This is for Kobe", but Jimmy Butler refused to appear as a background board.
In Game 5 of the 2020 NBA Finals on the 10th, the Heat led by Jimmy Butler defeated the Lakers 111:108 and tied the total score to 2:3.
As Butler said in an interview before the game, no one would "go home" like this, we are still here, we are still "alive."
Before this game, the Lakers had achieved a 3:1 lead.
In the game holding the match point, LeBron James' previous career record was 38 wins and 10 losses.
From historical experience, with a 3:1 lead, the Lakers' probability of winning the championship has exceeded 90%.
Therefore, in this theoretical home game, the Lakers did not wear a traditional white jersey to play, but chose black.
This is the "Black Mamba" version specially made to commemorate Kobe.
"This is not just a jersey. It represents the blood, sweat and tears that a player has paid for a club for 20 years." Although James did not mention a specific name, everyone knows who he is talking about.
Before the game, Anthony Davis wore the T-shirt that the Lakers warmed up before the game 10 years ago, and was equipped with "RELAX" "We Ain't Trippin'" (rest assured, no problem) Typeface.
James is wearing LeBron's 7th generation in this game.
And this pair of shoes first came out in the 2009-2010 season-the last time the Lakers won a championship.
Even before the game, the O'Brien Cup, a symbol of the NBA championship, was transported to the stadium.
The O'Brien Cup was shipped to the stadium before the game.
But Jimmy Butler refused to let all this happen.
35 points, 12 rebounds, 11 assists and 5 steals. All 12 free throws were made.
Butler used another super triple-double to challenge LeBron James on the opposite side of the field.
And finally, once again headed out of the court, Butler and his Heat are still alive.
In such a special season, in the first year of joining the Heat, Butler led the team to rush out of the East, and eventually lost to the Lakers and LeBron James who fought for Kobe. This story does not sound bad. .
However, Butler refused to accept the arrangement of fate, such a struggle, Butler is no stranger.
In fact, in 31 years of life, Butler has fought with fate almost all the way.
This kind of resistance started in childhood.
One day when he was still a teenager, Butler's mother told him: "I don't like the way you look. You have to go."
So, at the age of 13, Butler was kicked out of the house and had nowhere to go.
At the same time, according to American media reports, Butler's father has never appeared since he was a baby.
However, in an interview in 2017, he stated that he did not consider himself a real "homeless person."
Perhaps he, who is accustomed to wandering, has become accustomed to being alone, one family.
After entering high school, a local family with seven children in Tomball, Texas, brought Butler into the house.
At first, Butler only stayed a few nights a week, but the family finally agreed that if he could take care of the housework and improve his grades, he would be taken in as a member of the family.
Butler scored hard in the game.
Butler finally has a home.
But when he graduated from high school, difficulties ensued. He did not receive any recruitment from any NCAA first-level college and had to join a college.
It was there that he once again fought against the arrangements of fate.
With his performance on the field, he finally received an olive branch from several prestigious schools and eventually joined Marquette University.
In the new environment, he also retired because it was difficult to get used to the way the team trained him.
In the end, he survived all this.
In 2011, he entered the NBA with the 30th overall pick. Although he was the last rookie to be named in the first round, it seems not bad.
In the Bulls who drafted him, he has been used as a defensive wing.
Unlike previous superstar growth trajectories, it took him 4 years to usher in breakthrough growth, and he was elected the most improved player and grew into a three-time All-Star member.
But the Bulls don't think he will support a team.
Butler has thrown a lore for the Timberwolves.
So in 2017, he was traded to the Timberwolves, and was subsequently transferred to the Philadelphia 76ers.
It's another familiar wandering journey.
During this period, people recognized his strength, but questioned his leadership qualities and role in the dressing room.
In July 2019, Butler signed with the Heat as a free agent-he was awarded a four-year contract worth $142 million.
In addition, here, he seems to have found the end of the drift once again.
"The Heat's culture is not simply about winning the game. It's about how you win the game. It's about climbing over the finish line if necessary. Give it all and try your best." The 2007 championship member Gary Payton described the Heat's team culture this way.
Gary Payton on the Heat team culture.
This is the most impressive aspect of Butler's entire career.
But despite this, before the start of the season, perhaps no one except the Miamians themselves will include them in the ranks of championship contenders.
But in the end, Butler rectified himself on the highest stage of the league.
The Eastern Conference Champions Bucks, the two old clubs Philadelphia 76ers and Minnesota Timberwolves who had had trouble with Butler, can only witness the "locker room cancer" performance in the eyes of the outside world on the TV at home.
Since arriving in the closed competition zone in early July, Butler has not had a haircut or shaved.
According to Heat forward Haslem, he and Butler both slept on the sofa in the room instead of the luxurious king-size bed because "they refused to enjoy it here."
Butler made fouls at the last minute of the game.
Thus, in such a self-improvement of self-abuse, Butler stood in front of the rulers of the NBA over the past ten years without evasiveness, and unrelentingly "disrupted" the Lakers "the night of the fight for Kobe."
But Butler does not dislike Kobe. He said at the beginning of the season that Kobe has influenced countless people in incredible ways, as well as himself.
And his performance on this night is exactly the same as the spoiler performance of the dead man in the 2003 All-Star Game.
This night, Butler refused to allow himself to be the backdrop of history, and also refused to let Kobe become the "protagonist."
But everything he did was a perfect re-enactment of the "Mamba Spirit".
Jimmy-Butler talks about Kobe.
In 2015, in an interview with local Chicago media, Butler revealed that because he didn't like to look back, he removed the car's rearview mirror.
After this battle, the trend of the series has been reversed.
Butler, who likes to look forward, and fifth in the Eastern Conference on the stage of the Finals at the moment, have a chance to do more.