Miami Heat: J-Rich’s disposition confirms Jimmy’s displeasure

The Miami Heat are much better because of Jimmy Butler. While they say hindsight is 20/20, Butler told us during his 76er tenure that something was awry.

The Miami Heat are at worst the second-best team in the Eastern Conference right now and at worst, the fifth-best team in the entire league. A huge reason for their success this season has been due to the summertime acquisition that they made, landing the “whale” that Pat Riley promised to deliver.

Moby Dick in this particular instance came in the form of Jimmy Butler and a nasty one he is. While that is appreciated here in the Heat Culture, his straightforward and brash style hasn’t always been appreciated in his stops. We famously now know all about his displeasure in Minnesota, but he also told us at points last season that he had issues with some of the things that occurred in Philadelphia as well.

He didn’t wait until after he was gone either, he said these things while he was still there. It was with thoughts like these that many said he was a “cancer”, a “team-killer” and someone that could never be happy.

These notions would try to follow him to Miami, with the pundits and critics chiming in with things like “why would he go to Miami” or “he’s just going to Miami to have a good time”, but that has since proved to be the farthest things from the truth. In fact, based on a quote from a former Miami Heat and current Philadelphia 76er player in Josh Richardson, Jimmy Butler’s observations were spot on. Here is J-Rich’s quote via the twitter account of the Philadelphia Inquirer’s Keith Pompey.

While Richardson tried to account or make an excuse for what’s going on by attributing it to new players not wanting to overstep their boundaries too soon, this has been an issue at least since Jimmy Butler was there. It seems that it just takes one of those kinds of guys to recognize it.

That notion also begs of the question of why Al Horford hasn’t said anything. Is he playing it the best way he knows how by waiting it out or has he been falsely lauded as being a guy that goes about it the right way? I have long thought of Horford as being one of those guys that just does it the right way, so for now, we’ll just assume he’s being a good worker and teammate.

Either way you slice it, things aren’t good in Philadelphia right now and especially after a blowout loss to the Indiana Pacers on New Year’s Eve. You also can see clearly, based on Richardson’s comments, why Butler has longed to be in a Miami Heat jersey.