NBA Hall of Famer calls out Jimmy Butler for his antics with the Miami Heat.
Jimmy Butler stayed in the headlines for the majority of the 2024-25 NBA season, but for all the wrong reasons.
After a fallout with Miami Heat supremo Pat Riley over a contract extension, Butler demanded a trade from the franchise. The demand followed weeks of Butler’s antics to force a move away from Miami.
Butler ultimately got his wish when he was traded to the Golden State Warriors as a part of a five-team trade.
Since the move, many have shared their views on Butler’s dramatic exit from Miami. Ex-Warriors and Heat star Tim Hardaway recently gave his unfiltered thoughts on ‘crybaby’ Butler.
“I didn’t agree with what he was doing. You’re under contract. You’re a baby. You’re a crybaby because they said no to you. We used to get no said to us all the time and we used to know how to take it,” Hardaway said.
He added: “It is what it is. It’s a question. You get a yes or a no. You might not like the question but you can’t deviate and mess up the team.”
Requesting a trade is nothing new in the NBA, but the way that Butler handled it, was far from ideal. Hardaway also believes things would have never gone this badly if Butler had simply been available for the Heat before the postseason.
To put things into perspective, Butler played at least 60 games just twice throughout his Heat tenure. As a result, the Heat’s reaction was somewhat justified.
The Heat have spent years carefully cultivating a phenomenal culture that has helped them win three NBA Championships.
However, the organization abandoned it for Butler by allowing him to get away with things.
“I fault them for letting him get away with a bunch of stuff too. You got to nip it in the bud. When he went after [Erik] Spoelstra, told [him] he’d kick his ____ at a timeout and they had to take another timeout because Udonis Haslem was circling around,” Hardaway continued.
“That should have been like, ‘You’re getting three to five games. You don’t talk to the coach like that,” he concluded.
At the end of the day, the drama has certainly cost Butler his jersey retirement with the Heat. As for the organization, they lost someone who could have continued to help the franchise even after his retirement in one capacity or the other.
