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Jimmy Butler's Agent Offers Aggressive Rebuttal to Shams Charania Trade Reports

Charania mentioned the agent by name in a tweet regarding Butler's reported trade request.

Josh Wilson

Butler before a Heat game
Butler before a Heat game / Jim Rassol-Imagn Images
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In recent days, ESPN's Shams Charania has made multiple reports indicating that Miami Heat guard Jimmy Butler has a list of teams he would be open to being traded to if the Heat were to consider moving him this season ahead of him hitting free agency this summer.

The list initially included three teams: The Golden State Warriors, the Houston Rockets and the Dallas Mavericks. On Wednesday, Charania reported that Butler also has the Phoenix Suns on his list of approved teams. He named Butler's agent, Bernie Lee, by name as the source of the whispers about Butler's preferences.

Lee took to X (formerly Twitter) to refute the Tweets, and quite aggressively. Here's what he had to say to Charania in a series of Tweets:

"Alright listen. I gave you a pass yesterday because I was busy but if you don’t stop putting my name on your complete and utter made up bull---t because you know you normally arent worth my time to acknowledge. ... I don’t know what I’m going to do because I’m a middle aged dad but just know it would indicate severe dislike. World… all this is fabricated. I have never and honestly it wouldn’t help me or the position I represent to do anything that’s been reported by said “journalist” ... Shams this is your opportunity to say my bad “I let chat GPT write my tweets and it went old school Peter Vescey..” (Shams Peter was a writer in the 90’s) be a trend setter.. invent the new I was hacked. Carry on all. Thank you."

Speaking to the press earlier this week, Butler's coach, Erik Spoelstra, appeared to disagree with the idea that Butler was likely on the move. Butler himself didn't lend credence to the rumors. Now add his agent to the list of people pushing against the idea.

For what it's worth, team owner Micky Arison reposted one of Lee's Tweets responding to Charania on X, a seeming co-sign of his stance toward the recent reporting on Butler by Charania.

It's already shaping up to be an interesting trade season.

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Josh Wilson
JOSH WILSON

Josh Wilson is the news director of the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. Before joining SI in 2024, he worked for FanSided in a variety of roles, most recently as senior managing editor of the brand’s flagship site. He has also served as a general manager of Sportscasting, the sports arm of a start-up sports media company, where he oversaw the site’s editorial and business strategy. Wilson has a bachelor’s degree in mass communications from SUNY Cortland and a master’s in accountancy from the Gies College of Business at the University of Illinois. He loves a good nonfiction book and enjoys learning and practicing Polish. Wilson lives in Chicago but was raised in upstate New York. He spent most of his life in the Northeast and briefly lived in Poland, where he ate an unhealthy amount of pastries for six months.

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