Jimmy Butler’s breakup with the Miami Heat was messy, and there seemed to be a lot of hurt feelings on both sides. So it’s easy to imagine a reality in which the team refused to honor Butler in his first game back in Miami following the trade. However, that does not appear to be the case for the upcoming Heat home game vs. Butler’s Golden State Warriors.
When Miami hosts the Warriors tomorrow night, the Heat reportedly plan to welcome back and honor Butler with a tribute video.
“Yes, a Jimmy tribute video is expected tomorrow,” The Associated Press reporter Tim Reynolds wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “And it’s been in the works for a while.”
For what it’s worth, Butler says he does not care one way or the other.
“If they have one, if they don’t, makes no difference,” Butler said of a potential video.
Jimmy Butler on the possibility of getting a tribute video from the Heat in his return to Miami
“If they have one, if they don’t, makes no difference.”
(via @BradyHawk305)
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) March 24, 2025
The Heat traded Butler to the Warriors on Feb. 6 after months of tension. By the time he was shipped to the Bay Area, Butler had been arrested multiple times by Miami; he had been suspended for telling the media, among other things, that he likely could not be happy playing for the Heat anymore, missing a team flight, and walking out of practice.
The central issue between Butler and the Heat was reportedly the team’s reluctance to offer him a lucrative long-term contract extension. Butler, who is making $48.8 million this season, could have exercised a player option for a final year in which he would have earned $52.4 million, but he decided instead to force the issue, hoping to facilitate a trade to the Phoenix Suns, who reportedly would sign him to his desired extension.
Miami and Phoenix could not come to a deal involving Butler, likely because of Bradley Beal’s no-trade clause, but the Heat did trade Butler to the Warriors, who were floundering before the trade deadline. Golden State, once one of the top teams in the Western Conference, had slipped as far as 11th in the standings before Butler’s arrival.
Since then, the Warriors are 16-4 and now in sixth place in the West. Conversely, the Heat are 5-16 since Butler, who had missed numerous games before the trade, was acquired by the Warriors.
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