The Golden State Warriors are rolling with Jimmy Butler, winning six of their first seven games with the once-disgruntled Miami Heat franchise star.
Amid their rise from a fringe play-in team to a potentially dangerous playoff team, NBA.com senior writer Steve Aschburner issued a chilling warning.
“Enjoy the honeymoon,” Aschburner said on the “Steiny and Guru” show on 95.7 The Game.
Aschburner, who went to the same school — Marquette — as Butler did and covered the mercurial star in his early years in the NBA in Chicago, firmly believes the Butler-Warriors marriage will end the way it did with his previous teams.
“This gets down to the situation of whether are you going to believe what he says about the fifth wife. Are you going to believe how it worked out with all the first four wives? I think that Jimmy Butler is, I don’t know how to say this, he sort of burns through relationships, seems to me, and I was around him quite a lot when he was in Chicago,” Aschburner continued.
The multi-awarded veteran sportswriter was alluding to Butler leaving a trail of a mess at his every stop in the NBA from Chicago to Minnesota to Philadelphia and most recently in Miami.
Warriors Made a ‘Callous Decision’
Aschburner, a former president of the Professional Basketball Writers Association, slammed Butler’s unprofessional behavior and likened it to a spoiled child who threw a tantrum once he didn’t get what he wanted.
“I find it disappointing that the Warriors satisfied that sort of low character, those strategies in terms of getting what he wanted,” Aschburner said. “It’s like being undercut. You’re trying to discipline your child, and I’m fine putting up with those terms because of the way he’s behaved. You’re trying to discipline your child and then your spouse is like, ‘Don’t worry about what dad or mom said, do it this way. So [the Warriors are a] high-class organization. But to me, [trading and signing Butler to an extension] was a callous decision.”
Aschburner sees Butler wearing his welcome sooner rather than later in Golden State.
“They got what they wanted, I guess,” Aschburner said of the Warriors. “And if money is [not a problem], that’s fine. I’ll just say, enjoy it now, because two years from now, or even a year from now, if Jimmy Butler thinks that he should have a contract, paying him until age 42 or 43, he could go through this whole thing again.”
NBA Insider: ‘It’s Different This Time’
While Aschburner is pessimistic about this Butler-Warriors marriage, ESPN’s NBA insider Shams Charania feels positive based on what he’s hearing and seeing in the six-time All-Star’s demeanor since arriving in Golden State.
Charania reported that Butler believes the Warriors are “better than any other organization he’s been a part of.”
“I’m telling you it’s different this time,” Charania said on the “NBA Countdown” on Sunday, Feb. 23. “I haven’t sensed the same feeling he’s had when he went to Philly, when he went to Miami. This is different for Jimmy Butler going to Golden State. He’s staying late for shootaround. He’s staying late for practices. He’s spending so much time in the training room, the meal room.
“He’s going above and beyond to ingratiate himself with the Warriors right now.”
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