Disgruntled Miami Heat star Jimmy Butler delivered an ultimatum to their team president Pat Riley in a face-to-face meeting, ESPN’s Shams Charania reported on Tuesday, January 14, as the team-imposed seven-game suspension is about to end.
Butler’s message?
“He wants to be traded,” Charania reported.
The report also added that Butler told Riley in the meeting that “he will not sign a new deal in Miami” and that he would only pick up his $52 million player option for next season in an opt-in-and-trade scenario.
The 35-year-old Butler will serve the final game of his suspension, which the Heat said was “multiple instances of conduct detrimental to the team,” on Wednesday in the final game of their current road trip against the Los Angeles Lakers.
Butler will be eligible to return on Friday, January 17, in Miami when the Heat host the Denver Nuggets in a rematch of the 2023 NBA Finals.
Charania added that the Heat officials will convene later this week to discuss how to move forward with Butler’s trade request. A separate meeting between Butler and Heat owner Micky Arison is also expected to go down, according to Charania.
Longtime NBA insider Chris Haynes reported on “The Dan Le Batard Show” on Tuesday that Butler “is fully prepared to return to play for the Miami Heat if he is not moved by the time his suspension is lifted.”
Veiled Shot at Pat Riley
Before his face-to-face meeting with Riley, Butler seemingly took a veiled shot at him while talking to one of his Big Face Coffee employees.
“See, I gave you a compliment. That’s what bosses do, they build you up. They don’t break you down,” Butler told the employee in a video he posted on his Instagram story on January 10.
The tension between Butler and the Heat started in the offseason when the six-time NBA All-Star did not receive a contract extension. Riley poured more gasoline into the fire when he publicly admonished Butler for talking trash to eventual NBA champion Boston Celtics and fierce rivals New York Knicks after the Heat were eliminated.
“If I was playing, Boston would be at home. New York damn sure would be [expletive] at home,” Butler said on May 4.
Two days later, on May 6, Heat president Pat Riley admonished Butler during his end-of-season press conference.
“For him to say that, I thought, is that Jimmy trolling or is that Jimmy [being] serious?” Riley told reporters. “If you’re not on the court, playing against Boston, or you’re not on the court playing against the New York Knicks, you should keep your mouth shut in your criticism of those teams.”
Riley dropped the bombshell at the time that they were not going to extend Butler before this season.
“We don’t have to do that for a year,” Riley said at the time. “And so, we have not discussed that internally right now, but we have to look at that, making that kind of commitment.”
‘End of the Rope’
Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green knew this Butler messy situation in Miami was coming.
“I think they definitely are at the end of the rope,” Green said on the January 7 episode of “The Draymond Green Show with Baron Davis.” “I’ve actually been hearing for the last couple of years that they were kind of tired of Jimmy, Jimmy was kind of tired of them. I think Jimmy was kind of a little more so just enjoying living in Miami.
“I’m not one of those media people that make up stories. I’m not saying ‘enjoying living in Miami’ like Jimmy’s a partier, Jimmy doesn’t go out. So I’m not saying that, but living in Miami is a beautiful thing. And so I think he just more enjoys his life and what comes with him being the face of the Miami Heat.”
Before the Heat suspended Butler for seven games without pay, the disgruntled star said he had lost his joy on the court but maintained he’s happy living in Miami.
“Again, Jimmy’s a very serious guy,” Green said. “[He] takes his craft very seriously, works his ass off. So I don’t want this to come off the wrong way. I just think he had a good thing there where he’s going to the NBA Finals, he’s the man in Miami, and I think all of those things made what he was going through bearable. That’s what I’m trying to get at.
“And I think it’s just reached a point now where you’re like, ‘What do I have left, three more years, maybe? I’m going to live in Miami for the rest of my life after three years anyway.’ And so I think you start to get to that point, where I think Jimmy also — Jimmy’s as competitive as they come — wants to win a championship.”
Butler took the Heat twice to the NBA Finals and thrice to the Eastern Conference Finals. But the Heat front office failed to add another co-star next to Butler since moving to Miami in 2019.
Like Heavy Sports’s content? Be sure to follow us.
This article was originally published on Heavy Sports
The post Details of Explosive Jimmy Butler-Pat Riley Face-to-Face Meeting Leaked appeared first on Heavy Sports.