On the eve of the NBA playoffs, Jimmy Butler’s agent is in a spat with one of the league’s most prominent reporters.
On Friday, Shams Charania of The Athletic and Stadium reported that there have been “testy moments” between Butler and the Miami Heat coaching staff this season. This was hotly disputed by Butler’s agent Bernard Lee, who said the report was “not reality.” He then took direct aim at Charania and his penchant for reporting injury news, calling the reporter a “click bait, ambulance-chasing, dirt bag piece of s–t” as part of a profanity-laced reply.
Ironically, Charania’s report came in the context of a lot of praise for Butler and the Heat. Lee’s tweet is also likely to give the report more oxygen than it might have received otherwise, but the denial will certainly make headlines, if nothing else.
It’s probably not a story Butler would want to engage with just before the playoffs. On the bright side, he sounds so locked in right now that it probably won’t make much of a difference.
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