Erik Spoelstra breaks Jimmy Butler silence, with Heat offering pushback to Butler's rebukes

Ira Winderman, South Florida Sun-Sentinel on Feb 7, 2025

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NEW YORK — Friday, the silence was broken, the uneasy truce between Jimmy Butler’s side of the story and the Miami Heat’s side when it came to the past two months of unease that led to Thursday’s finalization of the trade of the former All-Star forward to the Golden State Warriors.

For weeks, ahead of media sessions with coach Erik Spoelstra, the Heat had stressed that there would be no comment on the three suspensions of the former All-Star forward or the ongoing trade deliberations.

Friday, Spoelstra ended that silence as he spoke after the team’s morning shootaround ahead of Friday night’s game against the Brooklyn Nets at Barclays Center.

Foremost, Spoelstra praised general manager Andy Elisburg and Heat president Pat Riley for getting a deal done, one that landed the Heat three players — Andrew Wiggins, Davion Mitchell and Kyle Anderson — as well as a first-round pick from the Golden State Warriors.

“We were able to really bolster our roster in a way that really was creative,” Spoelstra said. “Andy just did a tremendous job. Obviously Pat with this vision of all this stuff. We felt like we checked a lot of different boxes.

“We were able to do a lot of different things and turn the page. We have clarity now.”

Of his personal perspective on a long and winding 5 1/2-season road with Butler that ended with two contentious months, Spoelstra chose to view the experience in an entirety that included Heat trips to the NBA Finals in 2020 and ’23.

“The longer I’m in this business, the more that I feel like there’s less absolutes. More things can be true,” Spoelstra said of a relationship that had Butler both as ally and seemingly, in the end, as adversary. “And in this space, I don’t have to completely understand how we got to this point.

“But what I can have is a sense of gratitude completely. It was a great partnership and collaboration for five years, some really deep core memories. I’m grateful for them. I’m grateful for the time to be able to coach a player like Jimmy.”

With Butler having moved on, his camp went public with what previously had been offered privately about the deteriorating relationship with the Heat.

From the Heat perspective, a team source said Friday:

— Butler stood as the first player during Riley’s tenure to refuse to report for a team flight when contacted on the day of the flight, which was the case with the Jan. 22 flight for the game the next night in Milwaukee. The Heat had previously issued Butler the right to travel on his own, but that agreement was months prior and in the interim rescinded.

— The Heat held firm with their own rehabilitation program after Butler turned an ankle in the Nov. 8 loss in Denver and therefore felt Butler’s request to return to South Florida was not warranted, and therefore not allowed, much to Butler’s consternation.

— The team denied leaving Butler to carry a lacking roster during the runs to the two NBA Finals, with an appreciation that injuries to Bam Adebayo and Goran Dragic changed that calculus during the 2020 Finals.

— The decision for Butler to return as a reserve last month was solely that of Spoelstra, when he informed the team on Jan. 27, with Butler then leaving practice and subsequently suspended for a third time.

— The team felt the relationship with Butler turned decidedly different over the forward’s final two months with the team, the only time, in the team’s estimation, the tension reached a point meriting the consideration of a trade.

— Foremost, the team said both sides were clear of the approach of the other, with the Heat willing to work with Butler and his approach, with the Heat stressing the team’s history should have made clear the expectations for the player.

Through it all, Spoelstra said it now is time to move on.

“I’m grateful for the time,” he said Friday. “Now we turn the page to a different chapter. That’s the reality in this league — nothing lasts forever. And we feel good about turning the page.

“There is a lot that the team, we were managing, and even now, I’m grateful for this experience. And, again, I don’t have to completely understand, but that gratitude is there completely.”

His players offered similar sentiments.

“It’s only been a day since he’s not been on the team, but really I think it was a great five, six years to play with a guy like that,” guard Tyler Herro said. “I came in as a rookie, he took me under his wing, really showed me how to do things.”

As for the Butler perception that the Heat left him without championship-level rosters, Herro demurred.

“I guess that’s how he feels,” Herro said. “He’s done a lot for this organization. He’s a great player for sure. So I’m happy he got what he wanted. And it’s about the guys in this locker room moving forward.”