Dwyane Wade offers his thoughts on the Jimmy Butler-Heat situation: ‘It’s ending tragically’

As the Jimmy Butler situation continues to evolve, Miami Heat icon Dwyane Wade offered his thoughts on the seemingly broken relationship between the organization that he once represented as an NBA superstar and his friend and former Chicago Bulls teammate.

“I’ve got so many thoughts on this topic,” Wade said on the latest episode of his podcast, “The Why with Dwyane Wade,” that was released on Wednesday.

Wade first went back to his speech during the Heat’s ceremony to unveil his statue in front of Kaseya Center in late October.

“A house divided against itself will not stand,” Wade said during that speech, addressing the current Heat players in attendance for the ceremony. “Y’all hear that? Current Miami Heat players, y’all hear that? A house divided against itself will not stand. You’re either in or you’re out.”

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During this week’s episode of Wade’s podcast, he explained why he made that comment that many have connected to Butler’s situation.

“I stood up there and said that because the grass isn’t always greener,” said Wade, who briefly left the Heat amid a contract dispute to spend the 2016-17 season with the Bulls and part of the 2017-18 season with the Cleveland Cavaliers before he was traded back to the Heat. “As someone who was in that situation before … when I left the organization, I wanted them to know that if you don’t want to be here and the way things are working here and you don’t like it, then don’t be here. Because this is not the organization for that.”

At the moment, Butler does not like the way that the Heat is doing things.

Butler, a six-time NBA All-Star, wants the Heat to trade him to another team in the wake of a damaging few weeks for his relationship with the Heat.

While the Heat continues to listen to trade offers for Butler, according to league sources, there has been little progress in trade talks.

This has set up the potential for Butler’s return this week, as Wednesday night’s matchup against the Los Angeles Lakers at Crypto.com Arena marks the end of the Heat’s six-game West Coast trip and Butler’s seven-game team-issued suspension. Butler is eligible to come back when the Heat returns to Miami to host the Denver Nuggets on Friday and the expectation is that Butler will be asked to be available for that game.

Butler met with Heat president Pat Riley last week and Butler may meet with Heat owner Micky Arison on Thursday ahead of his potential return.

According to multiple sources, Butler has been disappointed with the Heat primarily because Miami declined to give him a two-year, $113 million contract extension this past summer, a deal that would have run through the 2026-27 season. Butler was open to signing such a deal early in the negotiating window, but his mind-set changed when the extension wasn’t immediately offered by the Heat.

“The organization will not be run in a way that is going to change to every star that comes into the organization,” Wade said during the latest episode of his podcast. “LeBron James only stayed four years. It wasn’t run the way LeBron James needed it to be run, it wasn’t run the way Dwyane Wade [needed it to be run]. It’s run the way Pat Riley is going to run it and the way the Arisons run it.

“So, it’s a part as a player that you don’t like. We didn’t like that [expletive]. I don’t like the way it went down. I’m not sitting here and saying I like it. But also, too, you have to stand on something. So if the Miami Heat ain’t standing on something, then they become like a lot of these organizations in the NBA. Trying to find their identity, trying to find their culture. No, this is the culture, bro.”

Wade alluded to some recent slippage in the Heat’s “iron fist” way of doing things, but added that “I’m glad that we’re back to the culture.”

“We were all looking at Riles like, ‘What’s going on over there? Because you’re trippin’.’ We’re used to iron fists,” Wade said. “We don’t hear iron fists going on over there. It’s crazy because you would think when you’re in it, you don’t want it. You think you want out, you think you want to go somewhere else. But then when you get out of it, you realize that that structure, that iron fist kept you in line. Not kept you in line like a little soldier, it kept you in line because this big world in the NBA will eat you alive. So, that structure kept you being able to be successful, kept you in a space where it wasn’t just about you. You knew that when you play in Miami, it’s bigger than that.”

During a postgame press conference on Jan. 2, Butler said: “I want to see me get my joy back from playing basketball. And wherever that may be, we’ll find out here pretty soon, I want to get my joy back. I’m happy here — off the court. But I want to be back to someone dominant. I want to hoop and I want to help this team win. Right now, I’m not doing that.”

Does Butler believe he can get his joy back while remaining on the Heat’s roster? “Probably not,” Butler said that night.

The day after Butler made those comments, the Heat announced his suspension through a press release on Jan. 3 that said: “We have suspended Jimmy Butler for seven games for multiple instances of conduct detrimental to the team over the course of the season and particularly the last several weeks. Through his actions and statements, he has shown he no longer wants to be part of this team.

“Jimmy Butler and his representative have indicated that they wish to be traded, therefore, we will listen to offers.”

“A lot of this that’s going on, it’s just ugly because I know there ain’t no communication going on,” Wade said on his podcast. “At the end, it’s ego, it’s pride, it’s jockeying for position and it’s ugly on our organization. But also at the same time from a person that’s been inside of the organization, iron fist. If we’re going to be that way, let’s be that way. And the stuff that we’ve been hearing as former players, we don’t like it. We didn’t get away with that [expletive]. We didn’t get away with that. But Pat Riley, he’s back.”

As for the narrative that top-end NBA players aren’t going to join the Heat because of the organization’s string of messy breakups with stars like Shaquille O’Neal, LeBron James, Wade and inevitably Butler, Wade shot that down.

“Y’all can quit that [expletive] right now,” Wade said. “There isn’t going to be a day that a basketball player isn’t going to want to make $300 million to play in Miami. There will not be a day that you’re not going to raise your hand to make $300 million and be the star of Miami. So let’s quit that narrative right now. Sign me up.”

Butler, 35, is averaging 17.6 points on 10.5 field-goal attempts, 5.5 rebounds, 4.7 assists and 1.2 steals per game while shooting 55.2 percent from the field this season.

Butler, who is in the middle of his sixth season with the franchise, has helped lead the Heat to three Eastern Conference finals appearances and two NBA Finals appearances since joining the team during the 2019 offseason. He has been selected for two NBA All-Star Games and made an All-NBA team three times during his first five seasons with the Heat.

“The Heat was a soft landing spot for Jimmy and Jimmy was exactly the star that the Heat needed for six years — Finals, big moments that they’ve had together,” said Wade, who formed a friendship with Butler when they were Bulls teammates during the 2016-17 season. “It’s ending tragically, this is tragic. This is a tragic way to end a relationship. So as a former player, it’s ugly on our franchise, it’s a stain on our franchise that we continue to have the way that the relationships break up. But also, too, on the other side, you don’t run that organization as a player. So you get to that space sometimes where you want to do things your way. It’s Pat Riley’s way.”

Wade, who is widely considered as the greatest player in Heat history, speaks from experience. After Wade’s contract dispute with Riley and the Heat in 2016, he left to play elsewhere before returning to Miami a few years later to end his Hall of Fame NBA career with the Heat.

“When I look at the organization and I look at all the players that came through, yeah, a lot of guys have left and a lot of top guys have left because we’ve run into that guy [Riley],” said Wade, who entered retirement at the end of the 2018-19 season. “We ran into that guy and when you run into that guy in Miami, you see who wins. You see who gets the last laugh.”