By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: 13:22 EDT, 25 March 2025 | Updated: 13:22 EDT, 25 March 2025
MIAMI (AP) - Jimmy Butler and the Miami Heat will be linked one last time.
And then, they´ll be on opposite sides - just like they were in his final weeks as a member of the team.
The Heat will pay tribute to Butler´s 5½ seasons with the team with a pregame video on Tuesday night, one that will be shown in the arena as part of the introduction of the Golden State Warriors´ starting lineup for the game.
Butler said he´ll watch the video, though added that it didn´t matter to him whether the Heat did one or not. He´s insisting that there´s no hard feelings now, a month and a half after he was traded to the Warriors following a contentious breakup that saw him suspended by Miami three times in his final weeks with the team.
He wasn´t happy with the Heat, not getting an extension and had issues with his role. The Heat weren´t happy with how he missed about 25% of their games during his tenure with the club and how he took his complaints public in the final months.
Butler got his extension - two years, $111 million - from the Warriors, and Golden State was 16-3 in his first 19 appearances with the team entering Tuesday.
"I´m always painted as the bad guy," Butler said. "Everywhere I´ve been, I´ve always been a problem. We´ll take it. I don´t got nothing to say. I´m not mad at being a bad guy. It´s all the way everything´s portrayed. Some people talk to the media, some people don´t. I´ve never been one to tell my side of the story to almost anybody. Let everybody think that this is what happened. We´ll ride with it."
Fans, as they tend to be when a top player leaves their team, have not been shy about hiding their anger with Butler on social media. Butler knows things didn´t end well in his Miami tenure, though notes that he believes there´s more than enough blame to go around for the messy breakup.
"I wonder if they look at the Heat the same way," Butler said. "It ain´t like I was the one who was doing everything. It´s got to be 50-50, maybe 51-49 - 49 towards them, 51 towards me. But there´s no way that I was the cause of all of this."
Butler wound up being suspended for a total of 14 Heat games before the trade. But the Heat have a tradition of welcoming back players who were All-Stars or champions with the team; Butler was an All-Star in Miami who led the team to three Eastern Conference finals berths and two trips to the NBA Finals.
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