Jimmy Butler’s late Game 7 miss cost the Heat. But he earned the chance to fail

The game was in Jimmy Butler’s hands, as it should have been, when he made a decision that will forever be second-guessed. With less than 17 seconds remaining in the Miami Heat season, Butler quickly went for the win and attempted a three-pointer that would have given his team their first lead of the game. It rimmed out, and the Boston Celtics held on to win Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals 100-96. In doing so, they clinched their first NBA finals appearance since 2010, leaving Butler and the Heat with plenty of what ifs.

Jimmy Butler went for the win. pic.twitter.com/7fjYjg9wkC

Butler was philosophical about a play that will surely follow him for the rest of his career. “Thought process was to go for the win which I did,” he said. “Missed the shot but I’m taking that shot. My teammates liked the shot I took so I’m living with it.”

The Celtics’ Jaylen Brown certainly wasn’t expecting Butler to miss it, not after all the pain Butler caused his team all season long. “When he shot that,” Brown said after the game, “I was like, man, what the hell?”

Game 7 was a rough, ugly beast filled with beyond-questionable officiating, momentum-defying scoring runs and endless amounts of stress for both fanbases. Only Celtics fans will remember their team, who had a 17-point lead at one point, being unable to buy a field goal during the contest’s final five minutes.

Similarly, probably only Heat fans will bitterly recall that, in the third quarter, a Max Strus three-pointer was called good on the floor and then – many minutes later – was overturned as being just barely out of bounds. It was three points that would have changed the entire complexion of that fateful Butler possession.

Instead, for most NBA fans, the lasting image of