The Miami Heat suspended Jimmy Butler for two games for missing a team flight and former NBA player Channing Frye has shared some interesting details on the incident. In the latest episode of the Road Trippin’ podcast, Frye revealed he was told that Butler made the team wait at the tarmac for hours and didn’t tell them where he was.
“Sources say there’s been communication in the past when things were good, ‘Hey, I’m taking care of this. I need to go here.’ This time, Jimmy held up the whole plane because he didn’t want to communicate,” Frye said. “… Let’s say a vet goes, ‘Hey, I gotta take care of some business here, I’ll be on a jet tomorrow morning.’ You communicate that to the team, so the team isn’t on the tarmac waiting for you.
“From what I heard, the team was waiting for him for a couple of hours on the tarmac,” Frye continued. “And they were like, ‘Where is this guy?’ And then he was like, ‘I’ll meet you there.’ They were like, ‘Yeah, alright, you stay right here.'”
This is not a good look for Butler. Throughout this whole saga, he has come across as very unprofessional and this incident just adds to that notion. Frye did mention later, though, that it would be in the Heat’s best interests to put this story out there as it justifies their decision to suspend him.
“Now on the flip side to that, if I’m Miami, that’s what I want to put out to the media, right,” Frye stated. “… Why would you do that? Because it justifies you fining him more and keeping him at home because he’s not really wanted to be active part of the team.
“You’re creating leverage to say either get in line and wait for us to either trade you to where you need to get traded,” Frye added. “You’re not going to disrupt what we got going on… Pat Riley will find a way to justify to fine you and take away that money if you don’t get in line.”
It’s true that this is definitely the story that the Heat would want out there. It paints Butler in a bad light and helps them win in the court of public opinion. That’s certainly what Butler’s agent Bernie Lee believes is happening here too, as he took to X to deny that his client ever did such a thing.
“This is just stupid and not that it needs to be said but 1000 pct did not happen. Also while I’m here I’ll ask, who lifted the all of us agreed upon Tim Hardaway radio embargo and how did I miss that memo?”
Lee also took a shot at Heat icon Tim Hardaway Sr. there. Hardaway has sided with team president Pat Riley in this saga and even claimed that Butler was out at a restaurant when he missed a game against the Orlando Magic due to illness.
We’ll probably never really know the full truth of what has happened in this wild saga. At this point, you just want the Heat to trade Butler so that everyone can just move on. They’re not going to do it unless they get an offer they like, though.
Butler, who is averaging 17.0 points, 5.2 rebounds, 4.8 assists, 1.1 steals, and 0.4 blocks per game in 2024-25, is all set to return from suspension when the Heat take on the Magic at the Kaseya Center on Monday at 7:30 PM ET.
Butler was, of course, previously suspended for seven games and only featured three times before getting sent home again for missing the flight to Milwaukee. It certainly wouldn’t be a shocker if the 35-year-old gets suspended once more by the Heat at some point.
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