If the Miami Heat win it all this year, you might just hear some country music coming out of the locker room.
The Heat are set to take on the Denver Nuggets in Game 1 of the NBA Finals tonight after knocking off the Boston Celtics in game 7 of the conference finals, becoming just the second #8 seed to ever make it to the championship round.
Meanwhile the Denver Nuggets sailed through the conference finals with a dominating 4-0 series win over the Los Angeles Lakers on the back of superstar Nikola Jokic, making the Nuggets heavy favorites to win their first ever title.
So what are the Heat doing to get ready for the challenge?
Well for six time All-Star Jimmy Butler, he’ll be listening to some Morgan Wallen and Luke Combs to get ready for Game 1.
During a press conference ahead of the NBA Finals, Butler was asked what his pregame routine looked like:
“Drinking some water and listening to some music. I think that’s the formula. You just gotta listen to music, drink water, drink wine. Play spades. And dominos.”
I wouldn’t think that wine would be the best thing to drink before a game, but hey, I’m not in the NBA Finals so what do I know.
And when Butler was asked what kind of music he listens to to get himself pumped up, Butler threw out quite the eclectic list of artists – including some familiar names for country fans:
“Probably Dermot Kennedy honestly. He be havin’ me groovin’.
Morgan Wallen too. Luke Combs. Lauryn Hill. Kirk Franklin. You never know, but it’s going to be something.
Spice Girls.”
Morgan Wallen, Luke Combs, and the Spice Girls all on the same playlist. What a lineup.
Of course Butler is known for being a country music fan, admitting that he started out playing country to mess with his teammates but then started to actually like it himself:
“Before the game, everyone was listening to those Beats by Dre, and at that point in time they weren’t wireless and they had that thick cord and it was just like obnoxiously loud.
They wouldn’t put them on their ears, they were like right here and you could hear it. So it was like Lil Wayne coming from one of my teammates, Young Jeezy, Wiz Khalifa…
So I was like, ‘Why don’t y’all turn it down, what’s the point of having on headphones if you’re not gonna have them on your head?’ And they were like, ‘Don’t worry about it man, worry about what’s coming out of your headphones.
So I said ‘Okay.’ After the game, I go home and I Google ‘What’s the most country song there is?’
Three popped up, but the one I saw first was Tim McGraw- ‘Don’t Take The Girl,’ so I downloaded it.
I go into the next game and I have my headphones like that and that’s what I’m blaring, and they were like ‘Yo, no you can’t listen to that, turn it down.’
And I said ‘No, you listen to what’s in your headphones, and I’m gonna listen to what’s in mine.’
Then I actually started to listen to the lyrics in the song, and I was like ‘Wow!’”
Since then, he’s shared Instagram stories showing his current playlist, including songs from guys like Riley Green and Chris Stapleton, and has also been spotted jamming out on a boat singing along to “She Got the Best of Me” by Luke Combs.
Hey, it seems to be working for him. Crank up the Luke Combs and go out and win you a title, Jimmy.
