Ira Winderman: Heat get to look at Jimmy Butler from both sides now

Ira Winderman, South Florida Sun-Sentinel on Mar 23, 2025

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MIAMI — The duality of Jimmy Butler is one amply familiar to followers of the Miami Heat.

There has always been … this Jimmy Butler and that Jimmy Butler.

This Jimmy Butler, the one who has so wonderfully meshed with the Golden State Warriors since his Feb. 6 acquisition at the NBA trading deadline, the one so familiar to Heat followers for exploits in three of his five postseasons with the team, a playoff menace able to carry rosters otherwise flawed.

And then there is that Jimmy Butler, the one who couldn’t be bothered by the regular season and instead placed greater focus on future paychecks, the one who left the Heat in that Feb. 6 trade with the Warriors, the one who made it clear he no longer had interest raising his game with Heat to the levels he previously had offered in South Florida and currently is offering in the Bay Area,

This and that Jimmy Butler return Tuesday night to Kaseya Center, in the Warriors’ lone remaining game against the Heat this season.

All of which raises another dual debate:

Cheers for five seasons of relentless performance during the most meaningful of moments, efforts that resulted in two appearances in the NBA Finals and three in the Eastern Conference finals?

Or jeers for allowing a spat with ownership and management to torpedo the season of those he left behind, many of whom were alongside to offer support during those epic playoff quests?

In the immediate wake of Butler’s departure, the Heat could not have made the franchise’s stance any clearer. On the day Butler was dealt, his No. 22 was granted to Andrew Wiggins, the Warriors forward acquired in the trade. As a matter of perspective, the Heat have not issued No. 41 since Glen Rice left in 1995 or even the No. 43 Grant Long left behind in 1994, and, of course, have not reissued LeBron James’ No. 6.

And yet show up at Kaseya Center and numerous No. 22 jerseys remain in attendance, the ones with the stitching of “Butler” across the back.

There will be a time, or at least should be a time, when Butler’s Heat legacy will be celebrated in Miami.

But Tuesday might be too soon, with the Heat still picking at the post-trade scabs of the team’s slide to the bottom of the play-in rung.

Decidedly uncertain is the reaction of when Michael Baiamonte introduces No. 10 for the Warriors (an irony being that at one point Butler wanted to wear No. 10 with the Heat, only to be told it had been retired for Tim Hardaway, with Butler still asking if he could have it).

Butler will arrive as his arbitration case works its way through NBA protocols to see how much of the lost wages he will recoup from his Heat suspensions.

Based on what Butler looked like before those rolling suspensions and what he looks like now with the Warriors, it would seem the Heat’s claim of “failure to render services” is with ample merit.

With Jimmy Butler, there always has been a switch that could be flipped.

All he asked in return was to be wanted, respected, supported by like talent … and to be paid.

To those who will cheer on Tuesday night, the Heat did Butler wrong by Pat Riley publicly calling for better attendance, putting an extension on hold, standing steadfast that the roster support of Tyler Herro and Bam Adebayo was ample.

And yet based on skepticism from that same fan base about extensions offered to Adebayo and Herro amid the ongoing lack of championship payoff, did even those on the pro-Butler side believe that in the immediate wake of another play-in season, in the immediate wake of Butler missing 22 games last season and never appearing in more than 64 with the Heat over his five seasons, that an offseason extension was appropriate at that time for a player turning 35?

Beyond that, was Heat coach Erik Spoelstra wrong in tilting the offense elsewhere amid concerns of yet another regular season featuring only a part-time superstar?

It nonetheless left Jimmy Butler feeling that he had been done wrong.

And when Jimmy Butler feels like he has been done wrong, he does wrong.

That, unfortunately, left the final images of Jimmy Butler in a Heat uniform one of a player indifferently meandering, on the clock to get off the Heat’s clock, frankly (and intentionally) a detriment.

Tuesday night, he will return as something completely different. Revitalized. Motivated. Monetized (the Warriors immediately agreeing to the extension that Riley and the Heat had put on hold).

With Jimmy Butler, it is his way.

That Jimmy Butler, when feeling slighted.

This Jimmy Butler, when feeling supported.