“When you’re talking about being the best at something, I don’t half-ass anything,” Miami Heat superstar Jimmy Butler said Monday in Boston, on an off day sandwiched between games against the Celtics.

Butler backs up his words on and off the court, whether leading the Heat to the NBA Finals last season in his first year with the team, running a bustling coffee business from the bubble in Orlando last summer that he says is still operating or his investments. It’s his shared vision and values with performance lifestyle menswear brand Rhone that led to a multi-year partnership, investment and creative deal which the company announced Wednesday.

The 31-year-old, five-time NBA All-Star will be what Rhone called “an active creative collaborator with a hand in design and marketing. The partnership will also be the start of Butler leading community outreach programs including a summer basketball clinic for underprivileged youth. Where these clinics will take place is yet to be determined, but the Houston native hopes he can give back to communities that have given so much to him during his life and standout basketball career.

“Jimmy’s incredible work ethic and entrepreneurial spirit, paired together with his sense of ease and cutting-edge style make him a such great fit for Rhone,” said Nate Checketts, the company’s CEO and co-founder. “We’re working closely with him to design new pieces, develop major marketing initiatives and launch new content across our channels. We’re excited for our consumers to see what we’ve been working on.”

Butler’s passion for fashion was palpable by the excited tone in his voice when speaking about the possibilities for what he could create, that his ideas would be legitimately heard out for what he’d do if he could make a pair of socks or a t-shirt.

“Everybody looks for certain things in certain products, certain colorways,” he said. “So I do have ideas. I’m not saying those ideas will work, but I think it’s cool that I’ll be listened to and I’ll have a little bit of say in something, because I am a part of this brand. It’s not really a partnership because I don’t look at things as partnerships. I look at things like a real family vibe, like everybody’s good with everybody, everybody makes sure that everybody else is straight. That’s how I operate on a day-to-day basis. We’re gonna respect one another in everything that we do, and it’s a real family-type thing.”

The Marquette product and former Chicago Bulls, Minnesota Timberwolves and Philadelphia 76ers cornerstone loves matching sweatsuits and said he’s starting to fall in love with shorts and a matching top.

“Nowadays whenever you work out anyway, as bad as this may sound, it’s kinda like a fashion show,” Butler said, evoking the current trends of posting workout photos and videos on Instagram, Snapchat or TikTok. “You got on earrings, you got on everything whenever you look up and down social media. So you might as well look good when you’re out there.”

To the untrained eye, Butler said, you wouldn’t know how many ways his mind works aside from basketball. He pointed to his YouTube channel, with over 700,000 subscribers, as evidence to prove that untrained eye wrong. There, you’ll see him try and cook, learn how to take soccer penalties with superstars Neymar and Kylian Mbappe and travel through Brazil, Cuba and Senegal. He apparently has 500-600 bottles of a particular 2010 Italian red wine stored up, which he reportedly discovered from actor Mark Wahlberg in 2013.

“I’m going to enjoy letting individuals know how I think through clothes just like I let them know how I think through basketball, coffee and whatever else I’m doing,” Butler said. “You’re gonna be comfortable in the gear and you’re gonna look hella good at the same time. So I can’t wait for this matching long sleeves and some semi short-shorts that I get to work out in, man. I look good while I’m working out, feeling even better and getting better while I’m out there on the court.”

On the court, the Heat officially clinched the playoffs Tuesday by winning both games in Boston, a successful outcome in a 2020-2021 season disrupted by an injury and his own bout with COVID-19, as he discussed with ESPN’s Rachel Nichols back in February. Yet Butler is having one of his best statistical seasons of his career, averaging 21.6 points, with career-highs in assists (7.2), rebounds (7) and steals (a league-best 2.1) per game while shooting a career-best 49.6% from the field. In typical Butler fashion, he called the challenges he and the team faced as nothing out of the ordinary.

“For us, it’s the same story over and over again,” he said. “People want to overlook us, but they really don’t want to. I think it’s just to gain some views and some clicks. But I like where we’re at. Nothing’s supposed to be easy. But we don’t use excuses, we don’t do any of that. We go out there and compete and try to win as many games as possible.”

Butler thinks that people pay more attention to other teams right now, but the defending Eastern Conference champs aren’t overlooked by many. And in the typical fashion of the three-time All-NBA player and four-time all-defense, he said that he’s not afraid of playing any team in the postseason right now.

“I like our chances against anybody,” Butler said.

That line of thinking, he said, has nothing to do with last year’s performance in the bubble, which began with a sweep of the Indiana Pacers, continued with a five-game dismantling of Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks and a series win over the Celtics before an injury-battered Heat team fell to the eventual champion Los Angeles Lakers in the Finals.

“This isn’t the bubble. This isn’t Orlando. It’s something completely different,” Butler said in a matter-of-fact way. “I don’t think about last year at all. I focus on the today and getting through this one and then worrying about tomorrow if it comes. There’s nothing I can do about us losing the Finals last year. I can’t go back and change it, so I let it stay there.”

What he’s focused on now is this Miami team which is completely different from last year and in a totally different place. Butler doesn’t want to base anything on last year, because the circumstances facing the teams and everything in the world was just not the same. Yet he still likes the Heat’s chances because he knows he can get back to the postseason and win it all.

“Where we’re at right now as a team is just showing that we can string together wins,” Butler said. “Because when the playoffs get here, you gotta beat the same team four times out of seven.”

That same intensity that Butler shows on the court and talking about basketball will be channeled into how much he’s going to put into his creative clothing designs at Rhone. As Butler did say, he just doesn’t half-ass anything.