MIAMI — Some followers cheered him. Some booed him.
Jimmy Butler waved to all of them as his return recreation in Miami was getting underway.
The Heat paid tribute to Butler’s 5 1/2 seasons with the staff with a pregame video on Tuesday night time, proven in the enviornment as a part of the introduction of the Golden State Warriors’ beginning lineup for the recreation.
Butler appeared to observe the roughly 40-second video, as he stated he would, although added that it didn’t matter to him whether or not the Heat did one or not. He received the full-throated introduction from Heat public-address announcer Michael Baiamonte — “Jim … my … Butlerrrrr” — simply as he did when he performed for Miami and waved to acknowledge the sounds from the stands.
He’s insisting that there’s no onerous emotions now, a month and a half after he was traded to the Warriors following a contentious breakup that noticed him suspended by Miami 3 times in his remaining weeks with the staff.
The video included a slew of Butler’s highlights from the Heat period, together with the iconic picture of him, exhausted, slumped over a courtside barrier throughout a recreation in the NBA bubble in 2020.
“There’s a variety of change in the NBA,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra stated earlier than the recreation. “However I feel we’re fairly far eliminated now from that sort of emotion.”
Butler wasn’t glad with the Heat over not getting an extension and had points with his function in the remaining weeks of his time there. The Heat weren’t glad with how he missed about 25% of their video games throughout his tenure with the membership and how he took his complaints public in the remaining months.
Butler received his extension — two years, $111 million — from the Warriors, and Golden State was 16-3 in his first 19 appearances with the staff getting into Tuesday.
“I’m all the time painted as the unhealthy man,” Butler stated. “In all places I’ve been, I’ve all the time been an issue. We’ll take it. I don’t received nothing to say. I’m not mad at being a nasty man. It’s all the approach all the things’s portrayed. Some individuals speak to the media, some individuals don’t. I’ve by no means been one to inform my aspect of the story to virtually anyone. Let everyone suppose that that is what occurred. We’ll journey with it.”
Followers, as they are typically when a prime participant leaves their staff, haven’t been shy about hiding their anger with Butler on social media. Butler is aware of issues didn’t finish nicely in his Miami tenure, although notes that he believes there’s greater than sufficient blame to go round for the messy breakup.
“I’m wondering in the event that they take a look at the Heat the identical approach,” Butler stated. “It ain’t like I used to be the one who was doing all the things. It’s received to be 50-50, possibly 51-49 — 49 in direction of them, 51 in direction of me. However there’s no approach that I used to be the explanation for all of this.”
Butler wound up being suspended for a complete of 14 Heat video games earlier than the commerce. However the Heat have a practice of welcoming again gamers who have been All-Stars or champions with the staff; Butler was an All-Star in Miami who led the staff to 3 Japanese Convention finals berths and two journeys to the NBA Finals.
He was booed when he touched the ball after the recreation began, although there have been some cheers when he scored Golden State’s first basket of the contest.
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