Coco Gauff is a fan of Jimmy Butler’s confidence!
While facing a tough first-round matchup at the French Open on Tuesday, the 19-year-old tennis phenom said afterwards that she was inspired by the Miami Heat forward’s positive thinking — which helped to propel Butler, 33, and his eighth seed team to an NBA Finals berth.
“Honestly, today, I told myself if Jimmy Butler didn’t freak out when they were up 3-0 and all of a sudden it’s 3-all, then I shouldn’t freak out after losing the first set,” Gauff said on the court after her win over Spain’s Rebeka Masarova, 3-6, 6-1, 6-2.
And while she said she did not watch Monday’s Game 7 against the Boston Celtics — because it happened at 2:30 a.m. Paris time — Gauff shared she was relieved to find out the next morning that her home team had won, and would face the Denver Nuggets in the NBA Finals.
But Gauff was hardly surprised, she said.
Months before, the six-time NBA All-Star asked her if she wanted Finals tickets, Gauff told reporters.
“This was before [the Heat] were in the playoffs. … He offered me tickets to see the last home game of the [regular] season,” she said. “Then he DM’d me a couple weeks later, asking if I wanted more tickets to see the postseason. I said, ‘I won’t be here. I’ll be in Madrid and then Rome and then France.’ ”
She continued, “And then he said, ‘Okay, when we make the Finals, let me know if your family wants some tickets. So, this was before we were even in the playoffs. This is before we lost to the Hawks for the first play-in game. I just felt like I knew that — everybody is like we have a 3% chance of making the Finals, but when he sent me that, I knew we were making the Finals because he didn’t say, ‘if we make the Finals,’ he said, ‘when we make the Finals.’ ”
Gauff added that she waited to share the story until Butler’s prediction came true — but she did previously share his prognostication with her family.
“I remember screen-shotting it and sending it to my family and I was, like, ‘Oh, we’re going, we’re going to the Finals.’”
She continued, “He pretty much said we were going to the Finals before [Miami] even qualified for the playoffs, and I just really like that mentality of him.”
The Miami Heat tip off against the Denver Nuggets in the NBA Finals beginning Thursday, June 1 on ABC.
