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Jimmy Butler’s teammates on the Miami Heat reportedly feel “disrespected” by the six-time All-Star amid his standoff with the franchise, according to Fox Sports 1 panelist Rachel Nichols.
Nichols reported on the Open Floor podcast with Chris Mannix (via HoopsHype) that Heat executives aren’t the only members of the organization frustrated with Butler.
“I’ve talked to guys in that locker room, and to say they have had it is an understatement because he has disrespected them so much,” she said. “The way he’s been in and out, ‘oh last minute, not playing,’ the way he’s been acting towards in their locker room, I mean staff and other people like that, and then the stunt with them making them wait for hours on the tarmac even to show up?”
After Butler’s relationship with the Heat began publicly breaking down, ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne detailed the issues that had been bubbling to the surface, particularly the special privileges he was being afforded. She reported that “alumni and staffers started to express concern at how much leeway the Heat were giving Butler.”
Once the 35-year-old requested a trade out of Miami, he returned to the playbook that proved successful in attaining his wishes in the past.
Having already suspended him for seven games for conduct detrimental to the team, the Heat issued another two-game suspension as a result of a “continued pattern of disregard of team rules, insubordinate conduct and conduct detrimental to the team, including missing today’s team flight to Milwaukee.”
Butler’s agent, Bernard Lee, refuted a report from retired NBA veteran Channing Frye that Butler had made the team wait multiple hours on the tarmac before the flight before deciding he’d get his own accommodations to Milwaukee.
The trouble didn’t end there, with Miami suspending the 6’7″ forward again, indefinitely this time, after walking out of a practice.
It would be of little surprise if other Heat players have grown exasperated by the whole saga.
The Heat are seventh in the Eastern Conference at 23-23. They’re in the midst of a playoff race and trying to climb into a top-six seed to avoid the play-in tournament, and their best player is staging a one-man crusade against the franchise.
Seeing him make light of the situation probably isn’t endearing him to the locker room, either.
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Jimmy Butler on IG ðŸ˜
“You’re currently unemployed, so your card doesn’t work, sir”pic.twitter.com/t0YQ2LWerH
This raises the obvious question of how the Heat and Butler would forge ahead if he’s still on the roster through Thursday’s trade deadline. He’d likely have to rebuild a lot of trust with his teammates, assuming he decided to re-engage for the second half of the season.
Miami is reportedly lowering its asking price in a trade, which seems to be an acknowledgment the relationship is untenable and Butler needs to go in the end.
The Golden State Warriors’ title window may close if they don’t shake things up on the trade market. The Warriors would likely
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