Butler trade shifted Warriors’ vibes at NBA All-Star Weekend originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
SAN FRANCISCO – Right in time, the rain went away before busloads of celebrities, corporate sponsors and fans arrived in the Bay Area for the 2025 NBA All-Star Game. It wasn’t sunshine and surf, but windy days and gray skies that became more blue as the weekend went on.
In the weeks leading up to the giant event, the Warriors were in real danger of a dark cloud looming over both Chase Center and Oakland Arena, with a monsoon of negativity raining down on them.
A middling team and an aging superstar, weighed down by trying to carry a franchise more than two full seasons removed from a championship, continued to look more improbable every game. No second star and a legend who formed an iconic duo long gone. No Paul George. No Lauri Markkanen. No fantasy turned reality of pairing Steph Curry with LeBron James or a Kevin Durant reunion.
No Jimmy Butler, until that changed the night before the Feb. 6 trade deadline moments before the Warriors were set to play the Jazz in Utah, completely changing Golden State’s story for the rest of the season while shifting the vibe of All-Star Weekend.
“Jimmy’s a great leader,” Tyler Herro said Saturday in Oakland at Media Day. “He leads by example, he comes in every day with a hard hat, puts his hat on and he gets to work. He’s a winner, he wants to win.
“I’m sure the fans out here in San Fran and Oakland will love Jimmy and we’ll miss him down in Miami.”
Butler’s arrival in South Beach coincided with the Heat drafting Herro out of Kentucky in 2019. For the first five-plus seasons of his career, Herro, 25, would often share the podium alongside Butler after wins. They created a quick friendship and blossomed into a Big Three that also included Bam Adebayo.
Not anymore.
Herro, in his first All-Star Game appearance, was the lone player representing the Heat. He didn’t get to answer questions about how he, Adebayo and Butler were going to make a playoff push and again compete for a championship, but instead had to give a respectful response to what his former star teammate means for Curry, Draymond Green and the Warriors.
Every single Warriors player involved in the weekend, young and old, including Gui Santos who changed roles from a forward to a reporter, was asked about the Butler trade. Positive questions were met with answers of excitement.
A handful of basketball’s biggest stars were asked about it, too. Despite Butler being more than 8,000 miles away from his new basketball home, spending the time off in Dubai, there was a buzz in the building because of him.
So much so that Green on Sunday’s pregame broadcast guaranteed a championship for a team coming out of the break currently the No. 10 seed in the Western Conference, one game above .500 at 28-27.
“I love expectations and having something to play for,” Curry said in response to Green’s prediction after winning his second All-Star Game MVP. “He’s lighting a fire, for sure. All jokes aside, we finished the last four games 3-1 and we have a lot to figure out still and have 27 games left to make a push.
“All we want is to get into a playoff series and have a fighting chance to be a tough out against anybody in the West, and we have a good opportunity to do that. I’m looking forward to the challenge and it’s basically a playoff game every single night. That usually brings the best out of you.”
Without the Butler trade, Curry would have been bombarded with questions about him not having enough help. Some might have pressed him if he’ll ever leave the only franchise he has ever known. The mood would have been somber and bleak at best.
The Warriors’ first home game once the break concludes is supposed to be a celebration. Andre Iguodala will have his No. 9 jersey retired the same day Klay Thompson plays for the last time in front of Dub Nation this season. It could have felt more like a funeral, remembering the past as the present was a paltry product begging for cheers.
Swinging for the fences doesn’t always work. Being satisfied with mediocrity always is worse, and was a path Warriors owner Joe Lacob simply couldn’t walk down less than two weeks from being the Grand Poobah of the All-Star Game.
Butler was nowhere near the festivities, yet him now wearing a Warriors jersey completely shifted the feelings surrounding the host team for the weekend, as well as the rest of the season.
