"When we make the Finals" - Jimmy Butler was ready to send NBA Finals tickets to Coco Gauff even before the play-in tournament

Jimmy Butler was so confident about the Miami Heat's chances of making the NBA Finals this season that he offered tennis ace Coco Gauff tickets before the playoffs even started.

Butler has led the Heat to an unprecedented run this postseason and is just four wins away from perhaps the most unlikely NBA championship ever.

In an interview with ESPN, Gauff told the story of Butler's offer right before the end of the regular season. The 19-year-old tennis star explained how Butler exuded confidence with his message to her.

"This was before they were in the playoffs," Gauff said. "He offered me tickets to see the last home game of the season. 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."

"And then he said, 'OK, 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.'" (h/t ESPN)

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Jimmy Butler's prediction from last year also came true

Jimmy Butler of the Miami Heat

Jimmy Butler and the Miami Heat lost Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals to the Boston Celtics last year on their home floor. After the game, Butler predicted that they would be back this season and face the Celtics again in the same situation.

"I think we had enough," Butler said last season. "I think we do have enough. It sucks because like, you don't know who's gonna be on a roster on any given year. Like I said, I'm just grateful for the opportunity for the guys I did have the opportunity to play with to play with. ... Next year we will have enough. And we gonna right back in the this same situation and we're gonna get it done." (h/t Sporting News)

Fast forward to Monday night, the Celtics hosted the Heat in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals. Jimmy Butler's prediction came true as Miami pulled off the 103-84 win to earn a ticket back to the NBA Finals.

The Heat will face off against the formidable Denver Nuggets team that swept LeBron James and the LA Lakers in the Western Conference finals.

The NBA Finals will start on Thursday in Denver.