NBA legend suggests Heat’s Pat Riley has grown ‘tired’ of Jimmy Butler

Jimmy Butler is yet to play 70 games in a single season in Miami, as last season he competed in only 60. There’s no doubt in anybody’s mind that the guard is one of the best in the world when he is healthy, however, time and time again the star has fallen to injury when the Heat need him the most. 

For example, last campaign he missed their Round 1 playoff series against the Celtics, in which he was remembered for trash talking their rivals on social media. This was why team presidente Pat Riley took the microphone to address this situation at a press conference, and told his player that “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.”

These are part of the reasons why former Heat guard Tim Hardaway Sr. believes that the Miami executive is tired of Jimmy. “I was waiting on that,” the NBA legend 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.

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

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“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 kept at it.

The Hall of Famer went on to share what he believes are the thoughts on the president’s head. “Yo dude, you haven’t played in a lot of games this year or last year, especially in the playoffs,” Hardaway insisted.

“I need you to play in the playoffs,” he channeled his inner Riley. “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.”

This past campaign, Butler posted one of his lowest scoring averages since he arrived in South Beach in 2019, with 20.8 points per match. He also averaged 5.3 rebounds and 5.0 assists, but unfortunately he wasn’t even taken into consideration by the U.S. men’s national team to represent his country in the past Paris Olympics.

Former player Rashad McCants recently called Butler ‘overrated’ for not pushing his team to glory during the 2023 NBA Finals

Tim Hardaway Sr. isn’t the only one who believes that Jimmy Butler is in debt with the Heat organisation, as ex-NBA star Rashad McCants recently went on a podcast show and called the Miami player ‘overrated’ after what he called a poor performance during the 2023 NBA Finals against the Nuggets.

“You can’t praise someone for being that guy, and then wonder where that guy went when it matters,” he remarked, despite the veteran guard averaging 21.6 points, 6.4 assists, and 4.6 rebounds per contest during their 4-1 series loss last year.

Ever since Jimmy joined the Miami club five seasons ago, he’s played a key role in taking the franchise to two NBA Finals appearance in 2020 and 2023. Reports have surfaced online suggesting that many teams, including the Warriors, are following his footsteps as the star’s contract is set to end next year.

“Jimmy Butler’s going to be a free agent next summer, didn’t get an extension done. The Warriors, as you know, have interest there and I think probably made a couple calls during the summer,” Sam Amick reported this week, as Golden State failed to land stars such as Paul George or Lauri Markkanen this summer to place alongside Stephen Curry.