MIAMI — It turned into the story of the night in sports and it was a weird one as videos from FTX Arena in Miami went viral, showing an altercation on the Heat sideline during a timeout between head coach Erik Spoelstra, star player Jimmy Butler and veteran player Udonis Haslem.
The Heat had just given up a 13-0 run to the Warriors, who were visiting Miami without their star players Steph Curry and Draymond Green.
In the huddle multiple videos appeared to show Spoelstra talking to his team, and then after Butler says something, Spoelstra appears to say, “you think I’m going to (expletive) fight you?”
Then Haslem steps in and begins arguing with Butler and as Butler goes back onto the floor, Spoelstra continued to have heated words with him. It was a dramatic exchange, and not one you’d expect from one of the NBA’s top teams gunning for a championship.
It was the second straight game the Heat lost to a team missing their star players. They were coming off a loss against a Sixers team without James Harden or Joel Embiid and now a Warriors team without Steph Curry or Draymond Green.
On the Locked On Heat podcast, hosts Wes Goldberg and David Ramil described what they saw, how players reacted postgame and what it means for the Heat going forward.
“Nobody spoke about what exactly happened during the postgame,” Ramil said. “They mentioned it was just a dust up, lot of emotions flaring, not that big of a deal. They kind of tried to play it off. But, the reality was that it looked much more intense at the time and we’ve never seen that kind of emotion and physicality between Erik Spoelstra, Udonis Haslem and their superstar Jimmy Butler.”
Goldberg said that while players tried to shrug it off, saying things like this happen in pro sports locker rooms, it’s still a big deal because it happened on a sideline, during a game, in front of everyone.
“Because it happened in a public setting, it is a big deal,” Goldberg said. “P.J. Tucker after the game said put a camera on any locker room of any football or basketball team in pro sports and you’ll see stuff like this every single day. I guess, but that happens in the locker room. It is different when it happens on a sideline, it is different when it happens in the middle of the third quarter while you’re giving up a 13-0 run to a team without all of their star players. It is a big deal. And it makes sense why this is the story people are running with right now.”
It looked at least for a while that the altercation may have galvanized the Heat players into winning the game as they came all the way back, but ultimately the Warriors were still able to get the win.
“I don’t know if it’s such a big deal that I’m questioning the vibes of the team, I’m not there yet, but it just signals to me that this is the low point of the season for the Miami Heat,” Goldberg said. “It doesn’t mean you can’t come out of it, but that was the low point of the Miami Heat season right there.”
Heat point guard Kyle Lowry said it was something that was good to get out of the way as the Heat make the push down the stretch to try to hold onto the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference.
“Frustration builds up sometimes,” Heat point guard Kyle Lowry said after the game. “I think it’s a situation where it’s good to get out of the way and then move on. We’re not going to dwell on it.”
Another angle to think about here for Heat fans is whether this signals the beginning of the end for Jimmy Butler in Miami. We know Butler has had issues with previous organizations and demanded his way out after not seeing eye to eye with coaches or other players and then he’s forced his way out.
“I think a lot of people are concerned Jimmy has turned for the worse here,” Ramil said. “I think a lot of people are claiming that he’s frustrated. I know it’s easy for people on the outside to pick at this and say, oh this is Jimmy rearing his ugly head, the locker room cancer he’s been in Philadelphia or Minnesota or Chicago. To accost your coach, to challenge your coach to this level, I think a lot of people are worried about what this means for Jimmy.”
Goldberg said he understands the way it looks, but he wants to pump the brakes on the “same old Jimmy” narrative for now.
“I’m not concerned that this is a Jimmy Butler doing the same old thing he used to do. This is a team that was in the NBA Finals two seasons ago with Jimmy Butler leading the way, it is with a group of players who Butler admires and respects and likes on a personal level…The other way to look at this is Jimmy Butler just hasn’t been playing really well lately…This has been a tough month for Jimmy Butler who has missed basically every other game and his numbers for the month are just not good.”
Checkout the Locked On Heat podcast for more analysis on Wednesday night’s altercation and where the Heat go from here.