The Heat Are Suspending Jimmy Butler AGAIN, This Time For 2 Games After He Missed The Team Flight To Milwaukee

Issac Baldizon. Getty Images.

What, you thought just because Jimmy Butler returned from his suspension on Friday that things were all rainbows and butterflies? You fool. Not only are the Heat 2-3 since his return with their latest loss coming at home to the Blazers, it hasn't even been a week yet and the Heat are once again suspending Jimmy Butler. This time, for a missed flight

Now, I do have some questions about what happens on these "missed" flights. Is this like Zion where he was maybe a little late for the team plane and got suspended? Was this a situation where Butler was running through the terminal and they closed the door and refused to open and let him on? Did he just flat out miss the flight altogether? I'm not sure any of that matters, but I'm curious about the details.

Regardless, I think it goes without saying that the bare minimum Jimmy Butler has to show before he's granted his trade request is to simply be a professional. Show up, play hard, be a good teammate, and stop doing things to hurt the team. Be on time, be an example, all that stuff. Between that ESPN report about how he took his own flights during their Finals run and stayed in a different hotel than the rest of the team, this is just the latest of terrible looks for Jimmy Butler since this whole ordeal started. 

And you know what? The last thing I want to do is stick up for billionaires, but at the end of the day what choice does the organization have? At some point, you have to fight back and set a standard. I'm pretty sure every NBA player knows to be on time for the team plane before a road trip. If Butler's absence wasn't excused, well then he left the team no choice. Given everything that's already happened, you have to suspend him in a spot like this. What choice do they have?

It makes you wonder that now with PHX loading up on picks and Beal being more and more open to a potential move, do the Heat just say fuck it and cut their losses? Maybe a week ago Pat Riley was holding out for 80-90 cents on the dollar for Butler. But if he were to say get 60-70 cents on the dollar, do they decide that it's better to have this distraction completely removed than haggle over some 2nd round picks of 1st round pick protections? He can't even go a full week without doing something that warrants another suspension!

The sad part is that this will most likely end with Butler getting what he wants and going to a destination that he wants. That tends to be how these things ultimately play out outside of the Dame trade last summer. This feels more like the Harden BKN/PHI situations than the Dame/POR situation to me and we all saw Harden get exactly what he wanted despite doing everything he could to burn his former teams to the ground before they hit accept on those trades. 

Part of me wonders if Riley knows that and instead sends him to basketball Syberia, at least for the rest of this season. Send him somewhere where he has to have the balls to turn down his $52M player option and hit the market for substantially less. I could understand working with Butler back when this all first started, but at this point it wouldn't shock me if Pat Riley decides to go down the spite route instead.