Warriors forward Jimmy Butler has been chasing an NBA championship for more than a decade.
He has come close twice, reaching the NBA Finals with the Miami Heat, but the six-time All-Star still hasn’t won the ultimate prize.
After joining Golden State at the 2025 NBA trade deadline in February, Butler now is in his first full year with the team — and he made clear that his top motivation isn’t silencing his own doubters, but securing another legacy-defining title for Steph Curry and Draymond Green.
“It would mean the world to me, but it would mean the world to me if they won,” Butler told NBC Sports Bay Area’s Kerith Burke on the latest “Dubs Talk.”
Butler understands his teammates’ résumés speak for themselves. Curry, drafted by the Warriors in 2009, already is a four-time NBA champion, two-time MVP and widely considered the greatest shooter of all time.
Green, selected by the Warriors in 2012, also has won four titles and built his reputation as the franchise’s defensive heartbeat, earning a NBA Defensive Player of the Year award in 2017 and nine All-Defensive Team honors along the way.
Still, history shows that a fifth ring would move both into an even smaller circle of all-time greats. Only 26 players in NBA history ever have won five or more championships. For Butler, that pursuit isn’t about collecting another trophy, but about cementing his teammates’ place among the legends of the game.
“They’ve already solidified themselves in the basketball fame and in the league, we get that,” Butler explained. “But to separate themselves from other individuals — you get five, like, you’re there. You know? No doubting, you can’t question it.”
The Warriors’ dynasty already has stretched across three distinct eras — the “Strength in Numbers” group that broke through in 2015, the Kevin Durant years of 2017 and 2018, and their 2022 return to glory behind the original core. Winning a fifth title would underline just how adaptable Curry and Green have been at the center of it all.
“You can’t say, ‘Who was on your team?’ ” Butler added. “You’ve done it with multiple different types of players and rosters. You get five, nobody is questioning anything about anybody that got five.”
If the Warriors do reach that mountaintop again, Butler will know he played a role in ensuring Curry and Green’s dynasty ends with no questions left to ask.
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