“It’s all sort of a whirlwind,” Mike Smith said when given a moment to digest the moment.
Six years ago, as a prep standout in Oak Park, Ill., on little more than a whim, Smith decided to ask Jimmy Butler if the two possibly could work out together.
Six years later, Smith finds himself in Miami Heat colors, as a draft pick of the team’s G League affiliate, having spent the intervening time, somewhat remarkably, as a workout partner of Butler’s.
“He’s my big brother now,” the undrafted University of Michigan point guard told the Sun Sentinel from Sioux Falls, S.D., where the Heat G League affiliate Skyforce are based.
To appreciate this moment of now being under the same franchise umbrella as Butler is to go back to the start, to the annual unveiling of Fenwick High School’s Jordan Brand jerseys. The guest of honor was Butler, who then was with the Chicago Bulls.
So Smith, with the impetuousness of youth, asked Butler if the two could train alongside. Butler texted the next day to meet him at the Bulls’ practice facility.
The two have been working out since, as Smith has navigated a college career that took him from Columbia to Michigan to a second-round pick of the Skyforce on Saturday.
“I’ve spent all my summers with him, training,” the affable 24-year-old said. “We’d do a lot of traveling and we’d train every day, twice, three times a day, me, him, his trainer.”
Butler said the goal wasn’t necessarily to establish a protégé, but the mentorship benefited both.
“I’m happy for the kid. That’s family to me,” Butler said ahead of Wednesday night’s game against the Brooklyn Nets at Barclays Center. “He’s like my brother. I see the work that he puts into it.
“I’m proud of him. I’m happy for him. I’m always going to be in his corner. But I want him to create his own path, and I think he’s doing that to the best of his abilities.”
Asked if he had influenced the Heat’s decision to utilize a G League second-round pick on the 5-foot-11 playmaker, Butler said he actually was hoping for more.
“I want him to be drafted into the NBA, but you can’t get everything that you want,” Butler said, with Smith playing summer league in August with the Milwaukee Bucks. “But I’m glad he’s over at Sioux Falls. He gets to see what the Heat culture is like at that level. Hopefully he gets called up so we can play together one of those days.”
Butler paused, then added for effect, “or they call me down and I get to play in Sioux Falls, because I will go.”
No, that is not happening. But Smith said he also would not stop from trying to bring the relationship full circle.
“I’m really excited for this opportunity and hopefully getting a chance to showcase my talent and hopefully be his teammate one day,” Smith said. “And that would be a crazy story.”
As if it hasn’t been unique already, especially when factoring in that Smith spent his time at Michigan last season playing under former Heat forward and assistant coach Juwan Howard.
“Because I played with Coach Howard, I kind of know the Heat-culture way, because Coach Howard implements that at Michigan,” Smith said, “and then Jimmy talks about it all the time.”
There are, of course, no guarantees for G League players not directly affiliated with NBA teams, as is the case with Smith and the Skyforce.
Reflecting on that day in downtown Chicago and that annual scholastic uniform reveal to this chilling moment in South Dakota, it very much is the stuff of whirlwind.
“I didn’t know what to expect, being that young and me going up to an NBA player and asking to train with him and him saying yes. You don’t know what to expect,” Smith said. “You’re living in the moment. Even if he didn’t call me back or didn’t want to hang with me after, I knew with the knowledge he gave me, I knew that would drive me.”
