Jimmy Butler is still alive in the playoffs right now with his new team, but Pat Riley clearly has no regrets about how he handled that whole situation.
The longtime Miami Heat president Riley spoke with reporters on Friday for his season-end press conference. During the session, Riley got a question about the ex-Heat star Butler and responded with some harsh comments.
“I’m not going to apologize for saying no on the contract extension [for Butler] when we didn’t have to,” Riley replied. “And I don’t think I should. I will always say that to the players. If I was coaching, [I’d say], ‘Keep your mouth shut, and I’ll see you next training camp.’ And you get back on the court.”
Riley did also reflect on the many good times and successes that Butler had with the Heat during their five-and-a-half-season run together and added at the end that he wished Butler well. You can watch the full clip of Riley’s remarks here.
In his comments, Riley was referencing his two major bones of contention with Butler that helped lead to their split. For one, Butler, 35, was seeking a max contract extension from the Heat (which they ultimately refused to give to him). For another, Butler made some controversial comments after Miami got swept out of the first round by the Boston Celtics last season while he was injured. He claimed that the Heat would have won that series if he was healthy enough to play, which led to Riley publicly firing back by saying, “You should keep your mouth shut.”
The Butler-Miami saga ended up getting extremely ugly towards the end, and the six-time All-Star was eventually away traded to the Golden State Warriors ahead of the trade deadline last February. Though the partnership between Butler and the Heat had clearly just run its course, it appears that there are still some lingering bad feelings between the two sides (especially when you consider what Butler had to say about Riley weeks after the trade).
