The Miami Heat are all the way guaranteed by Jimmy Butler as a flight to South Beach for Game 7 is not booked.
Less than a week ago, after the Boston Celtics pulled off two victories over the Miami Heat in the Eastern Conference Finals, Heat star Jimmy Butler put his trademark on full display as he guaranteed he and his team would meet Denver. Nuggets in the 2023 NBA Finals.
But now the series is held up with a winner-take-all (or winner-takes-all trip to the Finals, instead) Game 7 in Boston on Monday night. So do Butler and Heat still feel confident in that guarantee?
Their flight logs indicate that this is indeed still the case—in fact, they double it.
South Florida sports radio host Andy Slater reports that FAA records have a Heat team plane scheduled for a flight to Denver after Game 7 Monday night, not a flight back to Miami. Simply put, they plan to fly to face the Nuggets in the NBA Finals, not go home.
The Miami Heat book a trip to Denver for the NBA Finals, doubling Jimmy Butler’s guarantee
On the one hand, we probably shouldn’t read too much into this, since it’s a private team jet, changing course to fly to Miami wouldn’t be as much a logistical nightmare as trying to book a flight to Denver. However, at the same time, the Heat is also showing the right kind of belief that they’re still winning the East.
Why can’t they be confident? Yes, the Heat have now lost three in a row after leading 3-0 — but they were also a massive running back from Derrick White in Game 6 from already being in Denver before Game 1 of the NBA Finals. They were certainly in a position to live up to Butler’s guarantee at the time, but they just had a bad break (and probably should have boxed in a little better).
Monday night will answer the question, though, if the Heat make the mistake of doubling the bold guarantee or if the saddest trip rescheduling in NBA history will happen in Boston.