Jimmy Butler doesn’t need any reminders. He knows what he did before you know who did you know what. And Butler would be lying if he said he didn’t spend some time wondering what would’ve happened had Kawhi Leonard not answered his final basket as a member of the Philadelphia 76ers with that four-bounce, spirit crusher in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference semifinals.



Butler didn’t publicly weep or need any heartfelt consoling, as Joel Embiid did in the immediate aftermath of that shot. But the pain was just the same, if not more, because Butler had never been closer to a possible ring at any other point in his first eight seasons in the NBA.



“It just goes to show you how fragile life is. Not just basketball. Life,” Butler said in an interview with The Athletic. “How things can change in an instant, in the snap of a finger, and it hurts because you think about what could’ve been. What happens if we win that game? Do...