Jimmy Butler’s behavior prior to the trade deadline was pretty unbecoming of an NBA superstar. But he got what he wanted and he’s now in a situation he feels is better for his career.
Breakups haven’t really come easy for the five-time All-NBA forward, whose had pretty rocky exits at all of his stops since leaving the Chicago Bulls in 2017. And now after forcing his way out of Miami, he finds himself in Golden State looking for another shot at a ring.
One player who knows both those locales very well is Hall of Fame point guard Tim Hardaway, who didn’t have much positive to say about how Butler went about his business this season.
“[Jimmy Butler’s] a baby. [He’s] a crybaby”
Heat and Warriors legend Tim Hardaway Sr. had some choice words for Jimmy Butler with @TheFrankIsola and @TermineRadio #HeatCulture pic.twitter.com/26QkHPiF0V
— SiriusXM NBA Radio (@SiriusXMNBA) February 18, 2025
“I’ve been telling folks this, especially for the last week, especially here. I didn’t agree with what he was doing,” Hardaway said on SiriusXM NBA Radio. “You’re under contract. You 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,” the Heat-Warriors legend continued. “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, alright?”
Hardaway went on to say that the amount of games Butler’s missed over the last two seasons contributed greatly to Miami having to play in the NBA’s Play-In Tournament instead of earning a playoff spot outright.
“They said, ‘No, we want to see you play more games. We don’t want to be in the play-in games.’ If he played more games, they would have never been in the play-in games both years,” the 58-year-old explained. “Even though they went to the championship, they never would have been in the play-in games. That takes a lot out of you.”
“And I fault [Miami] for letting him get away with a bunch of stuff too,” Hardaway added. “You gotta nip it in the bud. When he went after [Erik] Spoelstra [and] told Spoelstra he’d kick his butt at a timeout … that should have been like ‘Yo, you’re getting [suspended] three to five games, you don’t talk to the coach like that. You don’t disrespect the coach like that.”
Butler was clearly going through some things off the court — which we saw firsthand on Netflix’s “Starting 5” — and it’s part of the reason he’s going by Jimmy Butler III with the Dubs.
Hopefully this is the fresh start he needs to put the finishing touches on what’s been a remarkable basketball career to this point.
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