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The NBA beef you didn't know you needed: Dwyane Wade, Jimmy Butler and an Instagram photo of Gabrielle Union

Jimmy Butler tries to talk to Dwyane Wade. (Getty Images)
Jimmy Butler tries to talk to Dwyane Wade. (Getty Images)

Basketball beefs never sleep, even in mid-August, when the NBA calendar is slowest, so naturally Dwyane Wade and Jimmy Butler are “feuding” over an Instagram picture of Gabrielle Union in a bikini.

Here’s how it started: Union, the actress who has been married to Wade since 2014, posted the picture to Instagram while the couple is on vacation in Venice, Italy. These are the things celebrities do.

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A post shared by Gabrielle Union-Wade (@gabunion) on Aug 16, 2018 at 12:00pm PDT

Here’s what celebrities don’t usually do: Catcall their friends’ wives publicly on Instagram. Or at least that’s what they should probably not do if they would like to remain friends. Jimmy Butler, who played one season with Wade on the Chicago Bulls, posted this comment under Union’s photo: “WELL DAMN!!”

Jimmy Butler had something to say to Gabrielle Union on Instagram.
Jimmy Butler had something to say to Gabrielle Union on Instagram.

Wade first planted his flag for the chorus who joined Butler to see …

Dwyane Wade lets Instagram know Gabrielle Union is taken.
Dwyane Wade lets Instagram know Gabrielle Union is taken.

… and then the future Pro Basketball Hall of Famer took aim at Butler:

Dwyane Wade has some advice for Jimmy Butler on Instagram.
Dwyane Wade has some advice for Jimmy Butler on Instagram.

“Put well damn in caps on my wife photo again,” Wade wrote in an SIC-laden comment on Butler’s Instagram page, “and you’re gonna see what the good, the bad and the ugly is like.”

I have many questions, but first: Would Butler have been OK had he not wrote it in all caps?

This is probably just playful banter among friends. It was Union who first urged Wade to reach out to Butler before they joined forces on the Bulls in 2016. Butler was playing spades on vacation in Paris with Wade, Union and Carmelo Anthony when he learned of his trade to the Minnesota Timberwolves last summer. Wade and Butler were toasting wine and singing karaoke together earlier this week:

Then again, Butler has tried to get Wade into trouble with his wife before …

… so we’ll just assume this beef is authentic, because it’s all we’ve got on Aug. 17. This is, of course, the most important NBA story you’ll read the day. You can carry on with less important news now.

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Ben Rohrbach is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at rohrbach_ben@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!