Jimmy Butler says Miami return is just ‘another game’ — but his previous stops suggest it’s not

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When the Golden State Warriors take on the Miami Heat on Tuesday, it will mark Jimmy Butler’s first game back at Kaseya Center since the blockbuster that sent him from Biscayne Bay to the Bay Area. That seems like a pretty big deal, given both the nature of how Butler’s five-and-a-half-year tenure in Miami ended — with trade requests and suspensions, with fines and fury — and the stark disparity in the fortunes of the franchises involved since the deal.

The rejuvenated Warriors have won 16 of 20 games since the Butler trade, surging into the West’s top six. Miami, on the other hand, has gone just 5-17 since sending Butler away, falling into 10th place in the East, just one loss away from guaranteeing the Heat’s first losing season since 2018-19 — which, coincidentally, was the season before Butler arrived in South Florida.

Despite all of that, though, Butler insists that, for him, Tuesday will feel unremarkable — just one of 82, no more, no less. From ESPN’s Ohm Youngmisuk:

“Yeah, I was traded from there, yada, yada, yada,” Butler said after finishing with 25 points, 8 assists and 4 rebounds in [Saturday’s] loss to Atlanta. “Yeah, it didn’t end the way that people wanted to, yada yada yada.

“But that’s so far behind me now. I don’t even think about it. I don’t pay attention to nothing except for the trajectory of this squad … Another game for me. Another game that we’re expected to win, for sure.”

He doubled down on that stance at the Warriors’ practice in Florida on Monday, downplaying the achievements of his five-plus seasons in Miami — three conference finals appearances, two NBA Finals trips, more playoff wins in that span than anyone but the rival Celtics — as just “all right.”

“We didn’t win nothing like we were supposed to,” he told reporters. “So, I don’t know. We made some cool runs. We had some fun. I think that’s all we did.”

To some degree, you could understand Butler feeling that way. After all, Miami isn’t the first NBA home he’s left — or the second or third, for that matter — and the 35-year-old’s exit also coincided with him landing the multi-year,…

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Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/nba/article/jimmy-butler-says-miami-return-is-just-another-game–but-his-previous-stops-suggest-its-not-133326243.html

Author : Dan Devine

Publish date : 2025-03-25 13:33:00

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