NBA Hall of Famer and former Heat guard Tim Hardaway Sr. has made the claim that Miami president Pat Riley is “tired” of star player Jimmy Butler.
35-year-old Butler is heading into his final year of his contract with the Heat and there have been rumors about Miami and Jimmy parting ways.
At the end of last season, Riley refused to acknowledge whether or not the team would offer Butler an extension.
He also ended the season with a fiery rant and Hardaway was hardly surprised.
“I was waiting on that,” Hardaway said on All the Smoke. “I knew something was going to happen. I told some people, I said, ‘Pat gon talk this year,’ especially you know he’s tired of a lot of things that are going on with the team. He’s tired of Jimmy Butler. …More so, if Jimmy didn’t say nothing about other teams when you’re not playing, it would’ve been alright, but when you came out and said that, yeah, he’s probably talking about both of them [Butler and Tyler Herro], but I think he’s really talking [to Butler] directly.”
Hardaway then went on to hypothesize about what Riley is thinking.
“‘Yo dude, you haven’t played in a lot of games this year or last year and especially in the playoffs,’” Hardaway continued. “I need you to play in the playoffs. If you play more than 70 games, we wouldn’t be in play-in games two years in a row. I need you to play. You need to take care of your body. You need to be in this gym taking care of your body – not the gym – but the weight room taking care of your body getting yourself straight. I was waiting on that. We all understood – all Miami Heat people – understood where Pat Riley was coming from, and you see what they didn’t do. They gon’ wait. They taking the Jerry Jones approach.”
