The Miami Heat are about to start the year in about a month or so. With a new roster and a ton of talent throughout, the future is certainly bright for this team.
With the future at the forefront though, a recent piece of news has certain eyes turning towards the past… well, sort of. Here is that news.
Injury Update: T.J. Warren’s stress fracture in his left foot is healing during the rehabilitation process; but not at the pace previously anticipated. He remains out indefinitely, and further updates will be provided as warranted.https://t.co/gVDB4jHrJg
— Indiana Pacers (@Pacers) September 7, 2021
The question is probably this. “Why should Miami Heat fans and supporters concern themselves with this guy?”
That’s a good question, on the surface. However, it shouldn’t take but a few seconds of digging through your collective memory bank to figure out the significance here.
In case you are having problems though, hop in the way-back machine, though you won’t be going that awfully far back. The year was 2020, the season before last, to be specific.
It was Jimmy Butler‘s first season in Miami and the pandemic hadn’t fully taken the world hostage yet. That means that games were still being played in home arenas around the country.
This particular game was being played in Indiana, meaning the Miami Heat were facing the Pacers. Then… this happened.
Jimmy Butler blew TJ Warren a kiss after Warren was ejected 😳 pic.twitter.com/ePoWVLmzO7
— ESPN (@espn) January 9, 2020
Well, with that leaving only two games in that particular regular season, Jimmy would help hold Warren to just 12 points in a matchup that was their third from last. In their final game that season, another game against the Pacers, neither Jimmy nor Warren played.
They did face each other in the playoffs that season in the bubble, however and though Warren did score 20 or more points in three of those four contests, the Pacers were swept as the total amount of games indicate. That whole thing, the limited amount of games, and the continuing vitriol in the playoffs only left the fans wanting one thing though… more.
Unfortunately, Warren only played in four games last season, before being out the remainder of the year with the same stress fracture mentioned earlier. Now and as alluded to, he still isn’t right to return.
With the Miami Heat facing the Indiana Pacers during the very first week of the season, there may have been hope for a long-awaited rekindling of the latter rounds of that particular battle. Of course though, now it appears that will have to wait.
As long as the Miami Heat get wins that first week, a ton of them throughout the remainder of the season, and finish the season dominating the Pacers, it doesn’t really matter a ton. It still would have been and hopefully, will be, a great matchup to look towards in the future.
However, this latest report really does make one wonder… will we ever get the Jimmy Butler and T.J. Warren latter rounds that we all deserve? Hopefully, but as the report indicates, that’s an indefinite set of circumstances at the moment.
So sad.