Credit To Jimmy Butler For Immediately Shutting Down The Idea There's Some Sort Of Butler vs Jayson Tatum Debate

Jesse D. Garrabrant. Getty Images.

If there's one thing people love to do, it's create completely subjective basketball debates between players from different eras. You usually see this in the dog days of the offseason when everyone is searching for any type of content, and as long as you don't take it too seriously it is a decent way to pass the time before Summer League/preseason starts. 

We'll always have the tired MJ vs LeBron debate, earlier this summer we had the Steph vs Magic debate, and I imagine next summer there will be another ridiculous and silly debate that people will argue on the internet over.

With that in mind, I have to give credit to Jimmy Butler for a second. He was asked about all these debates, and the reporter even tried to sneak in a supposed Tatum vs Butler debate, which he had the perfect response to

Now I'm not saying Jimmy Butler doesn't personally believe he's as good as Jayson Tatum, I'm sure he does. That's why he's Jimmy Butler. It's also no secret that he's terrorized Tatum and the Celts in each of the 3 postseason series they've had against one another. But he's absolutely right that there has never been and there probably never will be this sort of Butler vs Tatum debate. Tatum is a 1st team All NBA MVP candidate, a player most consider somewhere close to the top 5 in the entire league. As awesome as Jimmy is in the postseason, nobody has ever said that about him.

I'm sure some of Heat Twitter says stuff like that after their playoff series, but that's just a fanbase riding for their guy. If you look at it objectively, it's not really a debate. That doesn't mean that Butler doesn't maybe mentally own Tatum until proven otherwise, but in terms of their skill level, it's not really something that's debated. Honestly, the only thing that's really similar between the two is the fact that they are both wings. That's it.

So good on Jimmy for shutting that shit down immediately and straight up calling out that guy for making something up that doesn't exist. Honestly, we could use more of that from NBA stars. I'm sure that guy figured he could slide that in, get a sound bite to go viral and get clicks like so many others do. Everyone knows you mention Tatum/Celtics in anything and it's going to gain traction. Butler could have played into that given how the ECF went, which is why I respect him shutting that stuff down. He's not about the bullshit, he's just about hooping. 

I'm also seeing some out there write off the Heat this year, and I've certainly learned my lesson with that shit. I don't care what their record is or what their seeding may end up being. They have my respect and then some. Until you knock them off, that's how things work in my eyes. That starts and stops with Jimmy Butler being able to raise his game into that 1st Team All NBA/Tatum level, which is why those series are so fun to watch (while also taking years off my life).