MILWAUKEE — Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra delivered a message to his team in the wake of another suspension for star forward Jimmy Butler, who will miss this upcoming two-game road trip in Milwaukee and Brooklyn as punishment for missing a team flight.
“The point that I made to our team is get used to it,” Spoelstra said following shootaround Thursday morning. “Get over it. This is the NBA life; this is the life we chose. If you think it’s going to be predictable, you’re really mistaken.”
The Heat suspended Butler on Wednesday for his “continued pattern of disregard of team rules, insubordinate conduct and conduct detrimental to the team, including missing Wednesday’s team flight to Milwaukee,” the team said in a statement, the latest in an ongoing saga between the Heat and their disgruntled star.
Before the start of Spoelstra’s media session, a Heat public relations official informed reporters he would not be answering questions on Butler, a practice that was employed for several weeks during the initial suspension.
Butler had just returned last Friday from a seven-game team suspension for “multiple instances of conduct detrimental to the team.” He appeared in three games — averaging 13.0 points in 29.3 minutes — before his latest two-game ban, which left the Heat preparing to play without him in Milwaukee on Thursday.
“It takes a mental fortitude and commitment in terms of the task at hand,” Spoelstra said. “Nothing changes in terms of the task at hand. We have a game tonight, we have enough continuity, we know what our identity is at this point. You can make any excuse you want to, but we get to do what we love.
“We’ve had this happen all season long, so we know the exercise and what we need to do to make those adjustments.”
ESPN’s Shams Charania has reported Butler’s desire to be traded since last month, and Friday, sources told ESPN the Heat want to find a deal to accommodate Butler’s wishes.
The NBA trade deadline is Feb. 6.
When asked about the Butler saga, Heat guard Tyler Herro said “we all know everything that’s going on. Not much to talk about.”
“It’s probably not the easiest to work with someone who’s going to be in and out in any job,” Herro said Thursday morning. “We love Jimmy; we’d love for him to be here. I love Jimmy.”
