The protracted standoff between the Miami Heat and Jimmy Butler, which has always been more of a mid-off given the relative states of the parties involved, has taken yet another turn. ESPN's Shams Charania reports that Butler has now been suspended indefinitely, following an incident at today's shootaround in which he walked off the court after being informed that he would not be starting Monday night's game against the Orlando Magic.
It has been several weeks since Butler first made an explicit demand to be traded, and if I am being honest, I have not really kept track of all the developments since. Headlines and BREAKING NEWS reports have passed along the edge of my awareness, heralding various suspensions and returns from suspensions, and meetings with ownership, and agent back-channeling, and so on and so on. At some point, I am pretty sure I read something about Butler renting his own house in Boulder during the 2023 Finals. It's been difficult to keep track of all this, only because it is difficult to raise much concern about a player vs. front office battle as juiceless as this one.
On one side, you have a .500 Heat team being lorded over by 79-year-old Pat Riley, who thought it would be a good idea to publicly talk shit about Butler during the offseason and then not offer him an extension. On the other side, you have a 35-year-old forward who wants the ball a lot and doesn't do much with it aside from pump-faking at the free-throw line. Also, he's got a $52 million player option for next season that promises to throttle the roster-building efforts of any team willing to trade for him today.
There was a time when an angry Jimmy Butler could produce the best melodrama basketball has to offer, but time tarnishes us all. Where once there was a player capable of bending the league to his will and reaping the rewards, there is now an aging player with a toxic contract and a flat jumper slinking disconsolately off a practice court. Where once there were adversaries as worthy as the headstrong Karl-Anthony Towns and the devilish Tom Thibodeau, there is now a sour old GM firing off ill-considered press releases. These two have a lot to work out; maybe they can spare us further updates until something has been resolved.
