...
By Alex Kirschenbaum
Contributing Entertainment Writer
0
Share
Newsweek is a Trust Project member
See more of our trusted coverage when you search.Prefer Newsweek on Googleto see more of our trusted coverage when you search.
Six-time All-Star Miami Heat small forward Jimmy Butler's acrimonious relationship with his current team continues apace.
Per Shams Charania of ESPN, the 6-foot-7 swingman out of Marquette met up with longtime Heat team president Pat Riley at some point last week to discuss their options together.
Read More on NBA
After reaching an impasse in contract extension negotiations over the summer (Butler possesses a $52.4 million player option for 2025-26), the relationship between Butler and Miami has soured mightily.
...
He's been agitating for a trade, explicitly behind the scenes and not-so-covertly in public, in the intervening months.
Read More: Heat Superstar Jimmy Butler Requests Trade to 'Anywhere' But Miami
Following a particularly pointed Butler press conference and a pair of unengaged on-court performances, the Heat took the extraordinary step of suspending their best player for seven games.
Read More: Heat All-Star Jimmy Butler Suspended Multiple Games for Conduct Detrimental to Team
In the past, Riley has occasionally gotten into it with his superstars near the end of their Miami tenures. He had contract tensions with Hall of Famer Dwyane Wade, which prompted Wade's stunning departure to his hometown Chicago Bulls in free agency during the summer of 2016.
Wade suited up next to Butler on a chippy if ill-fitting, Chicago squad. He joined the Cleveland Cavaliers the next season but was ultimately traded back to Miami. Wade finished his career with the Heat in 2018-19.
Riley also eventually traded an aging Shaquille O'Neal, while the 7-foot-1 center was still an All-Star, midway through the 2007-08 season.
Astute fans will recall that Riley once seemed to call out LeBron James, much the way he has been quite public about Butler, after the Heat were decimated by the San Antonio Spurs in a five-game 2014 NBA Finals defeat. James departed in free agency that summer for the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Read More: Jimmy Butler Seemingly Takes Major Shot at Heat Amid Trade Rumors
Per Charania, Butler made a point to assert that he still wants to be traded away from the Heat this season, and if the team does retain him through the Feb. 6 NBA trade deadline, he will decline his player option for next year and walk as an unrestricted free agent.
The Heat likely don't want to pay the 35-year-old, injury-prone Butler to a full maximum extension of his current contract.
Butler, however, clearly realizes he's still a two-way, All-Star-caliber talent, and wants to be recognized as such. Several clubs with designs on contention are likely interested in acquiring the likely future Hall of Famer, with the struggling Phoenix Suns and Golden State Warriors seen as particularly intriguing fits.
Read More: Suns Reportedly Exploring All Avenues to Land Jimmy Butler in Trade
The Heat are currently 20-18 on the year, a thoroughly mediocre record. Butler has appeared in just 22 of Miami's games in 2024-25 and is averaging 17.6 points on .552/.375/.788 shooting splits, 5.5 rebounds, and 4.7 assists a night.
It's unclear where the meeting transpired. Riley was in Los Angeles on Monday to celebrate the jersey retirement of Hall of Fame former Showtime-era Lakers Defensive Player of the Year Michael Cooper.
Butler has a home in San Diego during the offseason and has been away from the team while he continues to serve his suspension.
That said, the five-time All-NBA honoree was recently sighted working out with two-time WNBA All-Star Dallas Wings small forward Satou Sabally, who's playing for Phantoms BC of the new women's 3x3 league, Unrivaled. Like every Unrivaled squad, Phantoms BC plays at the league's shared homecourt, based in Miami.
Butler's suspension will be over on Thursday. Whether he will actually suit up for Miami before the trade deadline remains to be seen.
Whatever happens with Butler in the short term, it's clear that his relationship with the Heat brass in general, and Riley in particular, is damaged beyond repair.
It's a sad conclusion to what had been a charmed partnership.
Butler joined Miami in a free agent sign-and-trade during the 2019 offseason and instantly brought the underdog Heat to the NBA Finals that year, where they fell to the Los Angeles Lakers in six hard-fought games. In 2021-22, the Heat notched the best record in the Eastern Conference, 53-29, and were a Butler jumper away from a second Finals bid in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals.
But the Heat were hardly through. The very next year, as the No. 8 seed in the playoffs, Miami improbably made a second underdog run all the way to the Finals, with Butler named the Eastern Conference Finals MVP for his efforts in driving that run.
He's been the best player on multiple Miami clubs to have gone the distance, and is now a big part of the franchise's history. But this unhappy, protracted breakup may have done irrevocable damage to his standing among Heat fans.
For all the latest on the Miami Heat and the NBA at large, stay tuned to Newsweek Sports.
View 0 Comments
Submit Correction
View Editorial & AI Guidelines