Leaks have come from a number of directions during the Miami Heat’s fallout with star forward Jimmy Butler, with each side seemingly finding ways to make the other look worse during the saga.
In one round of leaks, it was reported that some of Butler’s “transgressions” included skipping shootarounds and pushing to travel separately from the team plane to instead fly private. Another report then came out which indicated that a majority of the separate flights Butler took were to see his ill father.
Now, the finger-pointing is continuing, with a new report alleging that Butler stayed at a mansion “some 30 miles away” from the team when it was on the road against the Denver Nuggets in the 2023 NBA Finals.
“When [Dwyane] Wade left for Chicago in 2016 after receiving a lesser contract offer from a still cap-restricted Miami, Heat executives resolved never to make the same mistake again,” wrote ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne. “When the Heat acquired Butler via a sign-and-trade with the Sixers in 2019, that institutional memory was strong.
“‘To be totally honest, we said all the time that DWade died so that [Jimmy] could live,’ one source close to Butler said.
“That meant letting Butler, who was 30 at the time, color outside the lines that had long defined ‘Heat Culture.’ They hired his trainer, Armando Rivas, onto the staff — a common practice for other superstars on other teams but not for the Heat. He skipped team Christmas parties and trolled the NBA media with eclectic hair styles at media days. He was allowed to fly privately or stay at a different location than the team on road trips. During the 2023 Finals, sources said, he stayed some 30 miles away at a mansion in Boulder, Colorado, while the team stayed in downtown Denver.
“‘That is not common at all,’ one Western Conference GM said. ‘A superstar might stay at a different hotel but not at a mansion 30 miles away.'”
Shelburne continued.
“Butler did little to hide his unusual arrangement — even posting photos from a Van Leeuwen ice cream shop in Boulder to his ever-buzzing Instagram account during the Finals,” she wrote.
“‘We let Jimmy do more than we ever let LeBron [James] or DWade or Zo (Alonzo Mourning) do,’ one team source said.
“Privately, alumni and staffers started to express concern at how much leeway the Heat were giving Butler. But nobody dared speak publicly after he led the team to two Finals appearances in four years.”
Butler is expected to return to action on Friday — ironically, against the Nuggets — after serving a seven-game suspension. It’s a major mystery how the saga will unfold from here, as the veteran clearly doesn’t want to be with the Heat any longer yet still has a job to do since he hasn’t been traded.
It has been a down season for Butler, who has averaged just 17.6 points, 5.5 rebounds and 4.7 assists per contest across 22 games. His averages were hurt by a pair of unimpressive performances in two straight games before he was suspended. He scored nine points in consecutive outings on Jan. 1 and Jan. 2 against the New Orleans Pelicans and Indiana Pacers.
In the aforementioned 2023 NBA Finals, Butler and the Heat fell short against the Nuggets, losing the series in five games. Butler had a huge hand in getting Miami to the championship series but wasn’t as effective against Denver. He averaged 21.6 points per game during the series while shooting just 41.3 percent from the field and 36.8 percent from long range.
This season, the Heat are just above .500 at 20-19. They currently hold a play-in spot in the Eastern Conference, a position they’ve grown familiar with. Given all of the factors at play, it’s no guarantee that Butler’s return will help them build some positive momentum. In fact, the opposite could end up being true.
The trade deadline is set for Feb. 6 this season, meaning the Heat have less than a month remaining to move Butler before they’ll have to make it through the rest of the season with him still on the roster. So far, Miami has seemingly struggled to find any sort of trade involving Butler that would make the franchise satisfied.
