MIAMI — You start here: Jimmy Butler was one of the most significant players in the Miami Heat’s 37 seasons, and if not deserving of a spot on the team’s Mount Rushmore, then at least due — when cooler heads eventually prevail, even as the number already has been passed along to Andrew Wiggins — consideration to have his No. 22 in the Kaseya Center rafters.
Two trips to the NBA Finals, three to the Eastern Conference finals, two All-Star berths, three All-NBA nods of varying levels and one second-team All-Defensive selection in 5 1/2 seasons is an undeniable resume.
Jimmy Butler as a player when playing at the top of his game? Fierce, frightening, formidable.
But there also is the other side, the side when he just can’t help himself, when the concept of self overwhelms the concept of team, when me-against-the-world goes from something laudable to something lamentable.
There is a reason he does not last long in one place, the Golden State Warriors now the fifth stop in a 14-year career.
At times, an overwhelming presence on the court.
Almost always, an overwhelming presence off the court.
And, no, this is not the small stuff that gets overblown and got overblown over these past two months of contretemps with the Heat that led to his trade to the Warriors.
Elite players arrange their own ground transportation all the time. Elite players frequently set up their own accommodations on the road. And, no, the Heat plane two weeks ago did not sit on the tarmac for two hours waiting for Butler before the second of his three Heat suspensions. That one? Not true.
But he wore on teammates, coaches, and the support staff that was not his own support staff.
At one point, when a teammate had a moment even worse than most of Butler’s off-the-court moments, Butler quipped to a confidant of said player, “I may be a jerk, but he’s an a–hole.”
Still, when considering where Butler came from, homeless in his teens after being kicked out of his house by his mother, estranged for years from his father, empathy and grace were appropriate. And his teammates largely afforded as much.
Still, it was not easy, even during the best of times, with Butler diminishing of some, dismissive of others.
A moment in the locker room a season ago in Cleveland crystalized some of that.
It was the victory the night before Thanksgiving, the game when Dru Smith shredded his knee with a misstep off the court ledge at Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse, when the Heat, even in the absence of sidelined Bam Adebayo, found their way to a 129-96 victory, on a night Butler was limited to 10 points on 3-of-12 shooting.
In the postgame locker room, Butler’s personal music was so loud, microphones practically had to be shoved down Kyle Lowry’s tonsils on a night Lowry scored 28.
And then came the interview turn of center Orlando Robinson, a journeyman player in every sense, who, on this night, with Adebayo out, went for 14 points and nine rebounds and earned a postgame interview of his own on the team’s broadcast.
As Robinson spoke, or tried to speak, Butler shouted from across the locker room to Robinson that Robinson didn’t have to talk, wasn’t required to do the interview. Understand, there have not been many of these moments in Robinson’s career.
That’s when Butler was asked by a media member about the need to interrupt the interview, to prevent interviewer and teammate from such a benign moment.
As was typical when overstepping, Butler walked it back, said no ill intent.
And there wasn’t.
But over a course of a season, such me-moments can wear on a locker room, on teammates, on those there to support.
Again, a small part of a bigger picture. As one Heat official said during the recent back-and-forth, plenty of teams win without absolute harmony, including plenty of Heat teams in the past, including a Heat championship team.
But when you’re not winning, it becomes amplified and can torpedo a season, as Butler seemingly tried with this one.
And when a player who doesn’t always come to play is the one amplifying, it can become intolerable.
A passive parting obviously would have been the better way. But little about Jimmy Butler is passive, unless passively aggressive.
As a player, it has served him well. Arguably financially also well, considering the Warriors were waiting with the extension that Heat President Pat Riley had denied, or at least held in abeyance.
If Jimmy Butler’s goal was to make sure there never was a Heat player like him, he more than succeeded.
With his departure, it’s as if the Heat next want to make sure there won’t be another Heat player like him.
IN THE LANE
THE BOTTOM LINE: At one point during the machinations regarding the Jimmy Butler trade, it appeared that the Heat had worked their way fully out of this season’s luxury tax. But that is when the Toronto Raptors pivoted with their move for Brandon Ingram. The upshot was it left the Heat without a place to park Kyle Anderson and his $8.8 million salary for this season. So, instead, the math left the Heat with the league’s lowest tax payment of the 10 teams in the tax, at $4 million. The actual difference, though, is a net $15.5 million when accounting for the $11.5 million payment going to the teams out of the tax. What the maneuvering did, however, was get the Heat below the first apron of the luxury tax and therefore eligible, if so desiring, to sign any player off the buyout market.
SETTING SUNS: From the start of the Butler process, the intent appeared getting to the Suns, largely because Phoenix appeared willing to offer even more in an extension by waiting until the offseason to add another year. Butler did little to deny that preference in his Warriors introductory media session, saying of the Warriors, “This is a great choice. And the best part about everything is that I never say anything, so nobody actually really knows what’s really going on because it never comes from my mouth.” But the Phoenix preference had been made clear, clear enough that Warriors owner Joe Lacob addressed it to The Athletic, “He was trying to get where he thought he wanted to go. He just happened to be thinking incorrectly at the time. That’s now been amended.”
NUMBERS GAME: So did Butler, as he claims, take No. 10 with the Warriors because of soccer buddy Neymar? Or was it something more nefarious in claiming the No. 10 Tim Hardaway had worn during his Run TMC Warriors days alongside Mitch Richmond and Chris Mullin? Recall, Hardaway had called out Butler’s Heat antics this season, accusing him of “disrespecting authority.” To be fair, several Warriors have worn No. 10 since Hardaway’s 1996 departure to the Heat, including current Warriors General Manager Mike Dunleavy Jr., and more recently Ty Jerome. Hardaway’s No. 10 is retired by the Heat, but not, obviously, the Warriors. Butler, in fact, had attempted to claim No. 10 upon his Heat arrival in the 2019 offseason. Butler entered the NBA in No. 21 with the Chicago Bulls and then played in No. 23 with the Minnesota Timberwolves and Philadelphia 76ers before moving on to his No. 22 with the Heat (with the Heat having retired No. 23 in honor of Michael Jordan‘s NBA contributions). Andrew Wiggins was issued No. 22 immediately upon his arrival from the Warriors in the Butler trade.
FINAL CALL: Quick thought (although he is deserving of so much more) regarding Hubie Brown, at 91 calling his final television game on Sunday, when the 76ers play at the Bucks on ESPN. In 1988, when starting on the Heat beat, I asked Brown at the NBA League Meetings in Palm Springs if he had a few moments for his thoughts on how to cover the league. He told me to meet him by the pool. Sitting with legs dangling while Hubie was in the pool holding on to the ladder, it was three-plus hours of watching Hubie shrivel and at the same time offer enough insights to last these ensuing decades. Connecting through Atlanta on the way to many Heat games, it also afforded the opportunity to sit alongside on planes. The passion never waned, as he showed a devotion to and reverence for the game. His voice will be missed, but I doubt ever silenced when it comes to basketball insight.
NUMBER
4. Number of No. 1 overall draft picks to play for the Heat over the team’s 37 seasons (none drafted by the Heat): Shaquille O’Neal (No. 1 in 1992), LeBron James (No. 1 in 2003), Greg Oden (No. 1 in 2007) and, now, Andrew Wiggins (No. 1 in 2014).