The agent of Miami Heat star Jimmy Butler — Bernard Lee — made a recent post on social media indicating that the 34-year-old will stay out of the spotlight once he decides to retire from the NBA.
Butler already has a lot of miles on him. He is in his 13th season in the NBA after being selected by the Chicago Bulls with the No. 30 overall pick in the 2011 NBA Draft.
The veteran has played for four teams — the Heat, Bulls, Philadelphia 76ers and Minnesota Timberwolves — since joining the NBA.
Butler has been a member of the storied Heat franchise since the start of the 2019-20 season. So far in the 2023-24 campaign — his fifth season in Miami — he is averaging 21.5 points, 5.6 rebounds and 4.7 assists per game while shooting 50.1 percent from the field and 44.0 percent from 3-point range.
He has been scoring the ball at a high level for the Heat lately, as he has scored 20-plus points in nine of his last 10 games, with the one exception being when he finished with 17 points in a win over the San Antonio Spurs back on Feb. 7.
Butler is fresh off a 21-point performance on 7-of-17 shooting from the floor against the Denver Nuggets — who eliminated the Heat in the 2023 NBA Finals — on Feb. 29. Miami came up short in that game by six points.
The Heat will play their first game in the month of March and hope to bounce back from their loss to the Nuggets when they host the Utah Jazz on Saturday.
The Jazz have won just three of their last 10 games, and at 27-33, they are outside of the Western Conference postseason picture. Utah is 5.5 games back of the Los Angeles Lakers — who own the No. 10 seed — in the standings.
Following its matchup versus the Jazz, Miami will take on another opponent below the .500 mark in the Detroit Pistons on March 5. The Pistons own the second-worst record of any team in the Eastern Conference at 9-50, but they recently earned a 10-point victory over the Bulls.