"I’m Cool With Being A Bad Guy Over There" - Jimmy Butler Sounds More Than Ready To Embrace Being The Villain As He Prepares For His Return To Miami

Thearon W. Henderson. Getty Images.

For the first time since 2019-20, Jimmy Butler will finally play a game in Miami as a visitor when the Warriors continue their 6 game East Coast road trip with a quick stop in South Beach to take on his former team. It's safe to say both the Warriors and Heat have gone in opposite directions since the big-time trade last month, with the Warriors becoming one of the best teams in the NBA during that stretch (16-4) whereas the Heat have cratered all the way to the 10th seed (5-17). Their .227 winning percentage has only been outdone by two teams, one being UTA (.174) and the other PHI (.143), two teams who are doing everything they can to lose games at all costs.

Unfortunately for the Heat, all the losing in the world isn't going to get them out of the Play In (up 6 losses on TOR), so really they're left in the worst place to be in the NBA. Basketball purgatory. Not good enough to compete, not bad enough to win the Lottery. That's tough.

But the fact that the Heat stink now is not really news, we saw that almost immediately once they shipped Butler out of town. So instead, the story is, of course, Butler's return.

“You can’t control grown men in this line of work. You can try, but I’m going to do what I want to do. I’m going to show up. I’m going to compete and I’m going to help us win. So you can be mad. You can paint a picture that is not entirely true. I don’t even need to get into that. They know what they’re doing. You got to paint somebody to be the bad guy. I’ll take being a bad guy. Makes no difference. I’m here now. I’m competing at a high level and I’m helping the Golden State Warriors win. They want me here. Hell, I’m cool with being a bad guy over there.”

“I’m not saying it in a bad way, but I think it’s a little bit, like, overused talking about the ‘Heat Culture.’ It is a great organization. But I think a large part of that culture is you get guys that buy into a (winning mindset). You get some guys that buy in, you get some really good players and you get the opportunity to talk about ‘Heat Culture’ a little bit more. I’’m not saying it to talk down or anything, but I think whenever you have really good players you can name it whatever you want to name it.”

Of course, there are always two sides to every story. It's definitely true that Jimmy Butler did everything he possibly could to blow things up and make the situation with the Heat so toxic that the organization had no choice but to bend the knee and give him what he wanted. You might hate how Butler went about his business, but at the end of the day, it worked. It's how things are done when it comes to star trade demands, and no matter how much Pat Riley pushed back at the time, you knew he was going to eventually cave to his demands because the Heat had no leverage. 

But this idea that Butler was willing to "show up and compete" and that it was the team painting him in a certain negative light, that's kind of bullshit. Sure I bet Pat Riley leaked certain things, but Jimmy is also responsible for his own actions. He didn't show up and play through things while a trade was figured out. It was literally the exact opposite. So while he may not want to, he does have to accept some blame for how that all went down.

At the same time, the Heat share their own share of the blame pie as well. 

There was some speculation that the Heat would be petty and wouldn't give Butler a tribute video upon his return, but maybe all the bad PR going on with the Mavs right now talked them out of that decision because as of now that appears to be a go

This is a spot that's always a tough place to be as a franchise/fan. On one hand, it may seem a little insane to pay tribute to a player that just a few months ago basically burned Heat Culture to the ground and left the franchise for dead. But at the same time, everyone is watching you as a franchise in a moment like this. How you handle it, even if it's with something as dumb as a tribute video could very well be something other stars look at down the road when it comes to free agent signings. It sounds silly, but that stuff matters. It's partially why EVERYONE gets tribute videos nowadays, even the guys who pull shit like Jimmy did.

As a fan, on one hand, you want to be thankful for the run that Butler led, considering it was easily the most successful stretch the franchise had since the LeBron Big 3, but then again this is the man that is partially responsible for your team now being dogshit, so that's a tough place to be. It's not like they won a title or anything, but he was there for 6 years which ties the Bulls for his longest stint with any team in his career. 

It'll be interesting to see what the reaction is by the fans in attendance, my guess is they'll cheer during the tribute and boo once the game starts, and that's probably the right way to handle it. You can be thankful for the good times but also pissed at the current situation.

Even though it's been well over a month and Butler has already played 19 games as a Warrior, seeing him back in MIA as a visiting player is still going to be surreal. We all know it's real, but it's not until the first game back that things truly feel real. I'll always remember what it was like when KG/Pierce came back for the first time as Nets, it was weird as fuck. Something tells me Heat fans will have a similar experience tomorrow night. You have to imagine they were under the impression that Butler would retire with the Heat and go down as one of the best players in franchise history.

It just goes to show that things in the NBA can certainly change in the blink of an eye.