NEW YORK -- As the rest of the basketball world tries to wrap its collective head around the leap Chicago Bulls swingman Jimmy Butler has taken from defensive stalwart to All-Star this season, Hall of Famer Scottie Pippen watches from afar with a great deal of pride.
Pippen, who still works for the Bulls as an ambassador for the team, can't help but see the similarities between Butler's path to stardom and his own. When asked if he thought Butler could reach this high of a level -- playing amongst the game's elite Sunday night at Madison Square Garden -- Pippen, unlike many people around the league, says he isn't surprised.
"Yeah, I did because I kind of see Jimmy's career a lot like mine," Pippen said. "Everybody doubted him and he's sort of been put behind the eight ball to some degree and ... everything that he's earned in this league, he's had to work for it. I think that's been great for him because he's been what the team has needed the last couple of seasons. A guy that's out there working hard and just don't really give a heck. That's totally helped his development as a player and as an individual."
Any talk about Butler's elevation to star starts with his work ethic. It's what has defined his career. Butler has discussed many times this season about the work that he and his trainer, Chris Johnson, put in over the summer. Bulls officials marvel at the amount of time that the 25-year-old has put into his game over the last few years. That's why it shouldn't come as a surprise that when Butler discusses the one characteristic that got him to this point in his career, he remembers all those hours spent in the gym.
"Just how hard I play," he said, while discussing his defining All-Star characteristic.
But as Butler gets set to play on the biggest single game stage of his career, even he acknowledges that the journey from a rookie who barely played, to an All-Star who rarely comes off the floor, has come faster than even he could have imagined.
"Have I dreamed it? Yeah," Butler said recently. "Did I think it would happen this year? No. I was confident in the work that I've put in this summer, to where I'd be productive, but to say that I'd be an All-Star, I wouldn't have been able to tell you that if you had asked me over the summer, but a few people said that I would be."
To understand why people like Pippen, and selected others, aren't surprised by Butler's ascension, let's take a look at five of the biggest reasons why Butler has been able to take such a huge leap.
1. Consistency
Butler knows exactly what his role is. Unlike in his first year and a half in the league when he was struggling to see the floor, Butler knows what to expect every night. He knows he will be asked to guard the opponent's best perimeter player and he knows he'll be asked to drive to the rim and be an offensive difference maker. Most importantly, he knows that no matter what he does, he isn't coming off the floor. He has earned the trust of Bulls head coach Tom Thibodeau.
2. Playing with good players
Butler has been a beneficiary of the talent around him. He saw first hand the effort that Luol Deng poured into his game before he was dealt last season. Working alongside players like Joakim Noah, Taj Gibson, and to a lesser extent, Derrick Rose has helped Butler improve each year. It also helps that none of those players ever wavered in their belief of him.
"They just always installed a lot of confidence in me to just play the way I know to play, play the way I play in practice," Butler said of Noah's and Rose's leadership. "They're our leaders, and more than that they're just good dudes. They want everybody to be successful."
3. Playing in the same system
Butler's role has grown organically over four seasons because of circumstances. When Deng got hurt two seasons ago, Butler's minutes expanded. When Deng got traded last season, Butler's game expanded and his role changed. The key is that he always knew what Thibodeau and the coaching staff expected from him. Unlike a lot of young players, he didn't have to deal with the upheaval of a coaching change or two in his formative years. As has been the case in the past, his hard-nosed demeanor helped endear him to Thibodeau and the rest of the Bulls' staff.
"When we talk, we talk like we've always talked," Butler's college coach at Marquette, Buzz Williams, said. "I think people are wanting there to be another part to the story and there's not another part to the story. That's who Jimmy is. And he's comfortable with who he is. He's confident in who he is. He knows that tomorrow he needs to work harder than he did today. And he's not caught up in the hype and the surrounding minutiae of what's going on. He's very simple and direct in his approach and I think that's one of the reasons why the Bulls' organization, why coach Thibs, why all of those people think so highly of him."
4. Coaching, and belief from within front office
Thibodeau and his staff deserve a large amount of credit for continuing to work with Butler on his game. They have helped him consistently get better from when he entered the league until now. Bulls GM Gar Forman and executive VP John Paxson deserve credit for finding Butler at the end of the 2011 first round and keeping the faith that he would turn into a solid player despite the fact that Butler barely played in his rookie year. The nuturing of Butler's game, on and off the floor, has been crucial to his success.
5. Confidence
It's the word that Butler has always come back to this season. He believes in himself more than ever before. He believes in his game more than ever before. That belief is what has made the difference for him and helped turn him into the player that he has become.
"[He's] more aggressive," Oklahoma City All-Star guard Russell Westbrook said. "With Derrick being out somebody had to find a way to step up and he's done that and now Derrick's back and he's still doing the same thing, so he's definitely expanded his game."
Butler has taken his opportunity and run with it. The rest of the league may not have always believed in his success, but he always knew it was possible. That's why he is enjoying this experience even more surrounded by family and close friends -- the people that always shared his belief most.
"I think opportunity is one thing that happened for him," Pippen said. "Given the fact that Derrick was out last year, I think that propelled Jimmy's growth and his development. I think he was able to evaluate that over the summer and prepare himself from a physical standpoint -- more so than anything is where I see where Jimmy has gotten better at. He's shooting the ball incredibly well, so it's all about opportunity and I think he's just been a guy that's taken advantage of it."