Binance, an online exchange that allows users to trade cryptocurrencies, was hit with a lawsuit by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission several days ago in a development that made many headlines.
Now, the company is dealing with another legal battle, and this one involves Miami Heat star Jimmy Butler.
The Moskowitz Law Firm and Boies Schiller Flexner filed a class action suit on Friday that may impact the NBA veteran. The suit claims that Binance traded cryptocurrencies that are unregistered securities, and more notably for the Heat star, that influencers paid by Binance (like Butler) promoted those cryptocurrencies illegally.
The suit seeks damages worth more than $1 billion in total from Binance and other involved parties, like Butler.
One has to imagine that the 33-year-old is having second thoughts about partnering with the company. The lawsuit certainly doesn’t have great timing for Butler considering the fact that he’s currently trying to drag the Heat to the 2023 NBA Playoffs.
Miami has just four games remaining in the 2022-23 regular season and is on track to land in the play-in tournament based on the way things stand now. If the Heat do indeed land in play-in territory, they’ll have to fight for a playoff bid to earn the right to face either the Milwaukee Bucks or Boston Celtics in a first-round series (in all likelihood).
Heat fans know better than anyone that Butler tends to flip a switch during the most important games of the year, so it’s a safe bet that he’s going to do everything he can to lead Miami on a postseason run. Expectations aren’t very high for the 41-37 Heat, but they’re probably not a team that a high seed would be thrilled about facing in a first-round series.
Butler is averaging 22.8 points, 5.9 rebounds and 5.3 assists per game this season while shooting 53.4 percent from the field and 35.0 percent from beyond the arc. Over his last 12 games, he’s turned things up a notch, averaging 26.8 points per game while shooting 58.5 percent from the field and 42.1 percent from deep.
It’s Butler’s time of year, and the hope is that the news of the lawsuit won’t distract him as the Heat look to make some noise in the coming weeks. The team’s next game will come Tuesday against the Detroit Pistons.
