NBA Legend Suggests Miami Heat Are Fed Up With Jimmy Butler

NBA Hall of Famer Tim Hardaway recently claimed that the Miami Heat team president Pat Riley is growing tired of superstar Jimmy Butler.

Apr 29, 2024; Miami, Florida, USA; Miami Heat forward Kevin Love (42) and Jimmy Butler (22) watch the Heat fall to the Boston Celtics during the fourth quarter of game four of the first round for the 2024 NBA playoffs at Kaseya Center. Mandatory Credit: Michael Laughlin-Imagn Images / Michael Laughlin-Imagn Images

Miami Heat star Jimmy Butler illustrates time and time again not to doubt him when he's healthy.

The key is when he's healthy.

Butler is yet to play in more than 70 games with the Heat, appearing in just 60 last season. He also missed their Round 1 series against the Boston Celtics, during which he talked trash on social media. This prompted Heat team president Pat Riley to address the talk from the sidelines at a press conference, saying, "If you're not on the court playing against Boston or on the court playing against the New York Knicks, you should keep your mouth shut."

NBA Hall of Famer and former Heat guard Tim Hardaway Sr. is convinced Riley is 'tired' of Butler.

"I was waiting on that," Hardaway shared. "I knew something was going to happen. I told some people, I said, 'Pat gon talk this year,' especially you know he's tired of a lot of things that are going on with the team. He's tired of Jimmy Butler. More so, if Jimmy didn't say anything about other teams when you're not playing, it would've been alright, but when you came out and said that, yeah, he's probably talking about both of them [Butler and Tyler Herro], but I think he's really talking [to Butler] directly."

Tim Hardaway Sr. weighs in on the current state of the Miami Heat 👀⁰⁰“[Pat Riley’s] tired of a lot of things that’s going on with the team. He’s tired of Jimmy Butler.”⁰⁰ALL THE SMOKE with the 2022 Hall of Fame inductee drops TOMORROW on our YouTube! pic.twitter.com/xXuO04BoWY

— All the Smoke Productions (@allthesmokeprod) September 25, 2024

Hardaway then went on to explain the thoughts likely streaming through Riley's mind.

"Yo dude, you haven't played in a lot of games this year or last year, especially in the playoffs," Hardaway said. "I need you to play in the playoffs. If you play more than 70 games, we wouldn't be in Play-In games two years in a row. You need to take care of your body. I was waiting on that. We all understood where Pat Riley was coming from, and you see what they didn't do."

Injuries are undoubtedly a part of basketball, but there's significant debate over how Butler determines whether a situation warrants sitting out.

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Anthony Pasciolla works as a contributing writer to Miami Heat On SI. He can be reached at ampasciolla@gmail.com or follow him on X @AnthonyPasci.