Golden State Warriors forward Jimmy Butler’s agent is not letting bygones be bygones with the Miami Heat.
Butler’s agent, Bernie Lee, took aim at Dwyane Wade over comments Wade made on his podcast about Butler’s playoff contributions. Wade criticized Butler for being too passive after Steph Curry’s injury, claiming Butler “wouldn’t look at the basket” and that he had some similarly at times with the Heat.
That did not sit well with Lee, who said podcasts “can kick rocks” and argued that Butler’s playoffs started in February.
“Let’s be clear, the playoffs for him started in February,” Lee wrote on X. “1. Took a team that was 11th got them to the 2nd round of the playoffs. 2. that finals team (that’s) just kind of off handedly mentioned here had 9 undrafted players on it.”
Wade explicitly said that Butler is too good a player to be trying to facilitate for teammates when he was the Warriors’ best chance of winning the series, and wanted to see Butler operate as more of an alpha after Curry’s injury. Lee seems to be missing that point. If anything, he is adding to Wade’s point by layout out what Butler has been able to do for Golden State, but did not do against the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Butler scored 33 points in Golden State’s Game 3 loss, but remained under 20 points in the other three games Curry missed. In Game 4, he only attempted nine shots. That is the core of Wade’s criticism, and Lee’s response is the sort of thing Pat Riley was alluding to in his recent comments about Butler.
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