Open Floor: Jimmy Butler’s Two-Front War

Things get heated in Miami between Jimmy Butler, Erik Spoelstra and Udonis Haslem.

Jasen Vinlove/USA TODAY Sports

SI’s own John Gonzalez and comedian Stavros Halkias take over this Friday’s Open Floor to break down the minutiae of the Heat’s near dust-up between Jimmy Butler, Erik Spoelstra and Udonis Haslem before taking a look at why James Harden’s off-court fun may hurt the Sixers’ title chances, the odds of a Celtics championship and the many mistakes of the Knicks.

The following transcript is an excerpt from the Open Floor podcast. Listen to the full episode on podcast players everywhere or on SI.com.

John Gonzalez: As we record this, the Heat are nominally in first place. They’re the only team in the Eastern Conference to clinch a playoff spot so far. But, I don’t know if you saw what happened the other night against the Golden State Warriors. Not only did the Heat lose at home, but they imploded in full public view of everybody. There is a huddle and Udonis Haslem gets after it with Jimmy Butler. Jimmy Butler, I guess, was acting up a little bit; Udonis puts him in his place. So Jimmy was fighting a two-front war, which we all know you can’t do. Military strategy tells you that is a bad idea. So he gets in an argument simultaneously with both Udonis Haslem and his coach, Erik Spoelstra. And so two things happen. I want to ask you which one you thought was better. Did you like Udonis Haslem telling him, “I’ll beat your ass. I’ll beat your ass,” or Erik Spoelstra asking, “What, you want me to f------ fight you?”

Stavros Halkias: Yeah, I did like it because I like the idea that the Heat are falling apart here. I like it because, back to Giannis, they seem like the most spiritually together team and we can get into that. But I mean, look, Udonis Haslem, it’s like, that’s what the guy is there for. To me, it was like he’s on call to deal with this exact thing. That’s the only thing he gets paid for, is to throw his body in front of the coaching staff. He’s basically the coach that will fistfight a player if he gets a little mouthy. So to me, that was just Udonis going through the motions, if anything. It didn’t even feel particularly inspired to me. But Spo, his energy, he was like, What, you want to fight? But he wasn’t backing down. And I think he’s the best coach in the league. Just to get this team to be No. 1 in the East right now. Although I think it’s going to fall apart, fingers crossed here. This is the closest it has been in a while. Both Philly and the Bucks, I think are only a game and a half behind them after they lost to the Warriors. But just what he’s done is incredible, but it’s also just swag, he’s got the sauce, you know what I mean?

JG: The way he threw down that clipboard and showed Jimmy how heated he was.

SH: In a coach’s melee he’s up there with probably Ime Udoka. I hate to be giving compliments to the Celtics. Probably Ime Udoka is the No. 1 brawler. Like if I had to pick a coach to defend me in single combat, it would be Ime Udoka. But Spo is up there just for feistiness.

JG: Jimmy Butler very quickly backed down, and I would, too. Here’s my list of people I would piss off before Udonis Haslem: Everybody else! He’s the oldest dude in the league, and when he says he’ll beat that ass, everybody is like, Yep, yes, sorry, please do not beat this ass. Like, Jimmy’s going to have to go into witness protection because that’s the last guy you want to get heated with. 

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