The Golden State Warriors travel to Florida to take on the Miami Heat Tuesday night, which will be a must-watch night due to Jimmy Butler making his return to Miami for the first time since the trade.
Butler was asked a handful of questions about his time in Miami, the upcoming tribute video, and who accepts the blame for the way their relationship ended. His responses are as expected.
“Will I watch?” Butler said when asked about the potential of a Heat tribute video. “Yeah, I’ll watch. If they have one, if they don’t. It makes no difference. It really doesn’t.”
Beyond the tribute to him, Butler reconfirmed publicly that he had no intentions of signing an extension with Pat Riley. In fact, he knew his time with the organization was coming to an end.
Despite opening that can of worms, the 35-year-old did state for the record that he isn’t taking all the blame and says he’s “always painted as the bad guy.”
“I’m always painted as the bad guy. Everywhere I’ve been, I’ve always been the problem,” Butler said. “So we’ll take it. I don’t got nothing to say. I’m not mad at being the bad guy. It’s all the way that everything is portrayed. Some people talk to the media, some people don’t. I’ve never been one to tell my side of the story to almost anybody. Let everybody think that this is what happened and we’ll ride with it.”
Even with him being portrayed as this villainous character within the NBA, Butler is fine with it. That makes the pairing of him and Draymond Green even more terrifying for opposing players.
In 19 games with Golden State, the athletic veteran is averaging 17.6 points, 6.1 rebounds, 6.5 assists, and 1.3 steals per game.
