GOLDEN STATE WARRIORS MEDIA CONFERENCE

May 15, 2025

Jimmy Butler

Media Conference

Q. In Miami you were the guy and then there's a mid-season change for you, you come to the Warriors. You could be the Robin to Steph's Batman. Maybe you're not the No. 1 here. What did that require of you? Did you think there was any selflessness there? What did you think about this kind of different environment?

JIMMY BUTLER: I mean, I feel like everybody is so unselfish here that anybody could be playing any role on any given night. But I'm completely content with who I am as a basketball player, the way that I play the game. And to come here and know that I'm second to Steph, I think that's a really good thing, actually, when you talk about one of the greatest players ever to play this game.

I get to come here and be his sidekick for a couple more years hopefully. It's just refreshing. Then you've got some really high-level young talent that want to do well, that want to be great, and then the energy is at an all-time high. I don't think there's too much more that you can ask for.

Q. In the same vein of that question, when it came out that you were about to be traded or there was talk about wanting to be traded and the Warriors were one of the teams that was mentioned, reports came out that you didn't know if this was the team you wanted to be on or if it was somewhere else. Now that you're inside the franchise and played with these guys for the amount of time that you've played with them, whether that's second to Steph, his right-hand man, and then being able to be in the locker room with the guys that you've been in, looking back, you said you got your joy back playing basketball, but if you can kind of dive deeper into what it was or how you feel about the fact that you landed here with the Warriors?

JIMMY BUTLER: I mean, the way that reports go, it's all one person said this, one person said that because I don't ever really talk to the media so you'll never really know what's going on.

But to end up here is great. To know that Dray, Steph called me and talked to me about what was to happen in the future, and then just being inside this organization, seeing how great it is, how everybody wants everybody to be great. They're looking out for your best interests health-wise, basketball-wise to where you can play basketball at a high level.

And then we've just got some really good dudes. I truly enjoyed learning from each and every one of these individuals about who they are. I know who they are as basketball players because I've been in this league for a while. But what makes them tick, what makes them go, about their family, about how they grew up. I think that's the best part of anything in life is getting to know people.

So that's the good thing, and I landed here, and we hit the ground running, and I'm comfortable. I'm happy. I got my joy back, as Buddy would say, and I'm very fortunate to be here.

Q. Obviously things went very well when you got here. Things looked like they were seamless. But how much of it was just on the fly? How much was almost just kind of improvise, and what more is possible when you have a full off-season, full training camp?

JIMMY BUTLER: Yeah, a lot of it was. I come into the squad, we're on the road, we stay on the road, then we hit All-Star break, come back on the road. It was like, everything was moving so fast. I didn't have a home to be in yet. I didn't have anything. I didn't have my cars. I didn't have my wardrobe. I don't have a problem wearing Allo (phonetic) every day, but I was in Allo every single day.

Then you get more and more comfortable, the good way of comfortable, not complacent comfortable. But now you've got a whole off-season. I get to be around my guys in the off-season. We're going to get to vacay together. We're going to get to get our kids together. We're going to get to train together, build even more chemistry, and then take this thing into training camp and into this next year, this next season, and do what we set out to do.

Q. (Indiscernible).

JIMMY BUTLER: Yeah, of course. Not just them but everybody else. I don't know, I heard the end of Draymond's thingy up here. I don't know what everybody's contract situations are, but I would like to think they're still my friends so I still get to hang out with them and work out with them and see them in the off-season.

So I look forward to it because not only does it help me as a basketball player, I get to see where they're from and what they like to do and I get to live a day in their life.

Q. This is such a unique system and all that. As you go into the off-season, what do you think you'll work on, and how will your off-season change, if at all?

JIMMY BUTLER: It hasn't changed for years on years. A little bit of everything. More than anything, my main goal in the off-season to getting to know my people. I mean it. If I can show them that I am there for you outside of basketball and I'm actually getting to learn you and know you, it makes a huge difference on the court because it's not just about basketball. You need to know -- be able to tell when they're not right, when something is going on in their mind.

So that's my main goal, go and spend time with my people, my teammates, as often as I can.

Then basketball becomes quite easy, actually.

Q. How compromised were you health-wise in the last couple games?

JIMMY BUTLER: Everybody is nicked up at that point in time of the year. I'll be okay. I guess I've got a lot of time to recover now, though.

Q. Now that you've been with this team for a while, what do you think this roster needs going forward to improve?

JIMMY BUTLER: I don't really get into the whole roster talk. I think whoever we have, we go out there and compete. I believe we always have enough. For sure if we've got Steph out there on the floor with us.

I don't get into the roster. I don't know. I think everybody here, we are just very, very fortunate to be able to hoop for this organization, with this group of guys, and I don't think you can take for granted that it could be the same next year, it could not be the same next year. Who knows.

But in the right now, you just go out there and compete, and whoever we have is who we're going to have.

Q. Steph has talked about how your contract, his contract, Draymond's contract and Steve Kerr all align together for the next two years. Do you see this as a two-year window for a championship?

JIMMY BUTLER: Yeah, and then if we win some, it could be longer than that because I still think that we have a lot of great basketball left ahead of us. I don't think this age thing is anything the way that everybody is taking care of their bodies, doing right. I think the potential is there.

With the full season we've got coming up ahead, I think we'll be able to find out.