The Miami Heat are the 1st seed in the Eastern Conference but have flown under the radar in a lot of ways this season. The team also had to deal with an altercation between their superstar and their head coach. Jimmy Butler and Erik Spoelstra had what seemed like a very serious argument during the Heat’s loss to the Golden State Warriors in March.
Everyone related to the Heat wrote off the argument, including Spoelstra himself, and things have since settled down quite a bit. Miami has started their playoff run in fine fettle, beating the Atlanta hawks convincingly in their first 2 games of the postseason. However, the argument is far from forgotten by fans and the media, and Skip Bayless has been the latest to shed some light on what happened, at least as reported by his sources.
(video starts at 2:34 minutes)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OM_TeR4WQRw
“He (Jimmy Butler) almost burned out Spo, what was it three weeks ago? And I told you it was a north-south moment for that team… So I was told, he’s got some personal issue that I do not know exactly what it is, with Victor Oladipo.”
It’s difficult to tell whether these issues are what have caused the tension within the Miami Heat locker room, but it is worth noting that Victor Oladipo has not played a minute in either of the team’s playoff games, despite dropping 40 points in the final game of the regular season and looking like he might just get back to his best.
Butler is a fiery character, and it wouldn’t be hard to believe that he had some sort of issue with a teammate, as he has been through the same in the past. However, the Heat seem to have done a decent job of dealing with it and continuing to look like a side that is ready to contend. Whether there is an issue between Oladipo and Butler will only become apparent with time.
