Miami Heat star Jimmy Butler made some headlines recently for taking part in a celebrity poker game, but he evidently didn’t leave everyone at the event with a positive impression of him.
After Butler left, professional poker player Dan Bilzerian had some choice words to describe the 34-year-old, even resorting to some offensive language to express his displeasure.
Bro mad cause Jimmy stepped away when he doubled his money 💀
Sound like a smart man to me pic.twitter.com/Tqvhikl69Y
— Miami Heatle 🔥🐬 (@HeatleMiami) June 23, 2024
“That basketball player wanted to leave so bad once he doubled up,” Bilzerian said. “He was ready to hit the f—— door.”
Bilzerian added a new thought.
“That was the craziest thing I’ve ever seen,” he said. “The guy sat there for (the first) two hours and watched poker.”
He continued, with his spiel becoming increasingly insensitive.
“What a f—— baby, $3,500?” Bilzerian said after being told that Butler was upset over losing a game earlier in the event. “… Gay. Why are you gay? I should have said that to him. Why are you gay? You are gay.”
Bilzerian, who has a track record of making headlines for controversial comments, certainly isn’t doing himself any favors if he hopes to gain fans in the Heat community — and perhaps some other communities as well.
Butler may or may not take notice of Bilzerian’s comments, but either way, it won’t change the fact that the Heat star was able to make some money at the poker table. He was evidently able to double his money at the table.
The truth is that any money Butler makes while playing poker likely won’t come close to the nearly $49 million he’s set to make in the 2024-25 NBA season, but that’s not going to stop him from playing the card game anyway.
The NBA veteran just wrapped up a season in which he averaged 20.8 points, 5.3 rebounds and 5.0 assists per game on 49.9 percent shooting from the field and 41.4 percent shooting from deep. While his campaign had some bright moments, he wasn’t able to make any playoff appearances due to injury.
Without him, the Heat fell in the first round to the Boston Celtics, who ultimately won the NBA Finals. That’s a goal the Heat have been looking to accomplish for several years, and they’ll look to dethrone the Celtics in the 2024-25 season once both teams have had time to make some moves in the offseason.
