The Jimmy Butler Saga, and Why Kobe Was Greater than Shaq
I don't plan to say much about the Jimmy Butler saga until it is resolved; I have never trafficked in rumors and speculation, and I am not going to start doing that now. The basic facts are known to anyone who follows the NBA: Butler is dissatisfied with the Heat because he wants a contract extension that the team declined to offer, Butler has broken various team rules while making his dissatisfaction clear, and the Heat have suspended him on two separate occasions for a total of nine games. Butler is a six-time All-Star, but he made his last All-Star appearance in 2023 and it is clear that the 35 year old is past his prime, though still an effective player when he deigns to show up and play hard.
The Heat will pay Butler $48.8 million this season (minus the $3.1 million that he lost due to being suspended), and he has a player option for $52.4 million for next season. During his long tenure in Miami, team President Pat Riley has not shied away from confronting Shaquille O'Neal, Dwyane Wade, and LeBron James, so he is not going to have the slightest hesitation about confronting Butler; after last season, Riley publicly rebuked Butler--who missed the playoffs due to injury--for speaking about how well the Heat could have done with him in the playoffs, and Riley has made it clear that he--not Butler or any other player--runs the franchise.
One might think that it is reasonable for the Heat to expect Butler to show up on time and play hard in exchange for receiving over $100 million this season and next season, but Butler declared that he has lost his "joy" and will not be able to find it again until he is with a different team; when the lost "joy" escalated to missed flights and other violations of team rules, the Heat reasonably decided to not pay an employee who has declined to do the job he is being paid to do.
Butler is following in the shameful footsteps of--among others--James Harden and Damian Lillard, players who decided to say and do whatever is necessary to enable them to not only breach their contracts but also be traded to their destinations of choice. This is business as usual in the modern NBA, which is why I had not yet written about Butler--but listening to TNT's Shaquille O'Neal insist that it is acceptable and understandable for Butler to not "go all out" because the Heat have not given a contract extension to Butler provided an excellent reminder of why Kobe Bryant was greater than Shaquille O'Neal: Bryant consistently practiced hard and played hard while focusing his efforts on doing everything possible to win championships, but winning championships was not always O'Neal's top priority.
O'Neal said that he understands how Butler feels--"You don't want me, so I don't want you"--because he went through that experience more than once during his career. O'Neal has cultivated such a likable image during his post-playing career that it is easy to forget the contentious dealings he had with multiple teams during his playing career, including the Orlando Magic, the L.A. Lakers, and the Miami Heat. Lakers fans remember O'Neal declaring that if the big dog is not fed (the ball) then he won't guard the house (play defense in the paint), and they also remember O'Neal asserting that because he got injured on "company time" he is entitled to have surgery "on company time." That decision to delay his toe surgery not only probably cost the Lakers the 2003 championship (which would have been a "four-peat" not seen since Bill Russell led the Boston Celtics to eight straight titles from 1959-66), but it probably influenced Jerry Buss' decision to choose to build the Lakers around Bryant and not O'Neal; that turned out to be a wise choice that resulted in the Lakers winning championships in 2009 and 2010 while O'Neal settled for one post-Lakers' title as the Miami Heat's second option behind Dwyane Wade.
After O'Neal announced his retirement, I titled my tribute to his career Shaq Achieved So Much--and Could Have Achieved So Much More, and this is how I summarized his legacy:
O'Neal has an infectious joy for life, he has generously donated to many charities and he ranks among the top 15 players (and top five centers) of all-time. Yet, despite everything that O'Neal accomplished--and even considering that he rightfully should have received at least two more regular season MVPs (2001, 2005)--there is still an inescapable sense that he should have accomplished even more than he did. Phil Jackson recently said of O'Neal, "This is a guy who could and should have been the MVP player for 10 consecutive seasons." If O'Neal had approached training, practicing and conditioning with the mindset of Michael Jordan or Kobe Bryant then O'Neal could have established a body of work that would have credibly put him in contention for the mythical title of greatest player of all-time (as I explained in my Pantheon series it is very difficult to pick one player as the greatest of all-time, though it is possible to select several worthy candidates for that honor); O'Neal had a great career but no knowledgeable basketball analyst would rank him as the greatest player of all-time.
Thus, considering O'Neal's history it is not surprising that he is siding with Butler. O'Neal has never believed that a player should be expected to give maximum effort at all times if the player is dissatisfied for any reason. O'Neal's TNT co-hosts Ernie Johnson, Kenny Smith, and Charles Barkley pushed back, arguing that Butler has a responsibility to fulfill the terms of his contract. Johnson framed this as a matter of personal pride/integrity, while Barkley emphasized that Butler should not let his teammates down. Smith agreed with those points, and he noted that Butler may be trying to get more
money but all that he has done so far is cost himself more than $3
million that he may never recoup.
Labels: Jimmy Butler, Kobe Bryant, L.A. Lakers, Miami Heat, Pat Riley, Shaquille O'Neal
posted by David Friedman @ 2:25 AM
9 Comments:
Very disappointing display from Butler. I used to respect him as a no-nonsense player with an excellent work ethic and he has shown us that he has plenty of nonsense to go around, as increasingly many NBA players do.
Keith:
I share your disappointment. When Butler plays hard, he has a significant impact on team success--but his antics this season make him seem very selfish, and cause one to wonder how much he was at fault when problems arose during his time with other teams.
Thank you for this David. This is one of the main reasons the quality of the NBA has gone down. Sure, the barrage of threes (see Celtics/Lakers last night) is ugly (and lazy), especially when they aren't dropping, but this entitlement from the players and lack of accountability are truly what makes for an unwatchable product. And this is not just the league's most popular stars (LeBron, Embiid, Kyrie, AD), but also all-star level players like Paul George, Butler, LaMelo and never-beens like Zion and Ben Simmons. Nobody wants to play anymore. The last MVP to play all 82 was Kobe way way back in 2008...That's sad. In fact, no all-star over the past decade has played all 82...
Thank you for bringing attention to what Shaq said last night. I was...not surprised. It's why he was never one of my favorite Lakers. He just, didn't hold himself accountable. In my youth, I'd argue with people about this all the time. Anyone who said that Shaq would've 3peated with any all-star level guard or that he and LeBron would've won more than he and Bryant. No no no. Bryant, even at 20 years old, consistently held himself accountable in a way that Shaq never did at any point in his career, save perhaps his MVP season. In fact, Bryant held himself accountable in a way that few other players have in NBA history. That is true greatness. Not this manufactured media image with shiny advanced stats and gaudy box scores. True greatness is forged over time. Sharpened over time. Honed.
Kobe once said, "The truth always comes out, so I don't worry about it. I don't think about it. It's going to shake out. People who talk about me in a negative manner don't know me. They don't know me. If they had a chance to be around me and kick it with me and get to know me, then they can judge. I think that will come out as years go by. People will see how I truly am and what I'm truly about and everything will be all right." (I think you even quoted this in one of your past articles).
While the last sentence hasn't really come to fruition yet -- as the LeBron media machine continues to diminish and/or flat out ignore Bryant's legacy -- the more these other contemporaries of Bryant continue to flap their mouths (Arenas, Pippen, Pierce, Shaq, etc.), the truth is revealed for those willing to look with clear eyes and listen with open ears.
Jordan:
You're welcome!
I did use that Kobe quote in one of my early articles about Kobe, at a time when there was a lot of anti-Kobe nonsense in media outlets that favored Shaq over Kobe.
I agree with most of what you wrote, but I am not sure why you lumped Pippen in with Arenas, Pierce, and Shaq. Arenas was a selfish, often clueless player who now says clueless things. I discussed Shaq's shortcomings in this article. Pierce won one Finals MVP, but has had his share of bizarre moments on and off the court. I don't see how Pippen fits into that group; Pippen was a selfless player who played a major role on six championship teams before helping Portland reach the 2000 WCF. He has always spoken bluntly--which I don't think is a negative--but most of his takes about players (including Bryant, James Harden, and Kevin Garnett) are on target. He has mixed feelings about MJ and clearly is upset about how he was portrayed in the Last Dance, but at no time has Pippen ever said or done some of the outlandish things that Arenas and Shaq have said/done.
I loved Pippen as a player, but he's gone over the edge the last few years. He flip-flopped on putting LeBron over MJ because he was salty about the Last Dance. Then, recently put MJ back over LeBron. He called Phil Jackson racist. And just the other day said that he'd have won 6 championships without MJ. Not trying to take anything away from his career, as to me, he's a top 25-30ish player all time. However, his talent and ability on the court, has not saved him from making stupid comments off it.
While today's players give zero respect (I mean, zero. Like they don't even know the history of the game, and I'm not talking about Jerry West/Russell days, I'm talking about Kobe/Dirk/Duncan days), the older legends have not done a great job of lifting up the current generation. Pippen flapping his mouth and making unsubstantiated claims, degrades not only his legacy, but the legacy of all the players he played with and against -- especially when it comes to the views of Millenials and Gen Z.
Jordan:
I may not have seen or heard every Pippen comment, but what I have noticed in the past is that Pippen is often misquoted, or his words are taken out of context. When I read and reviewed his autobiography, I found that other people's descriptions of the book were not accurate.
I don't agree with everything that Pippen has said, but I would not lump him in with Arenas, Pierce, or Shaq in terms of consistently making off the wall comments and doing off the wall things.
Shaq definitely did not win as many championships as he could have and there are numerous categories in which he underperformed historically:
Total Career Points: 11th (28,596)
Career PPG: 31st (23.69)
Career RPG: 40th (10.85)
Career BPG: 16th (2.26)
Shaq should be way higher in every single one of those categories with the combination of size, strength, explosiveness, and unusual agility that a player of his size possessed.
Michael:
That is an excellent point: a player who styles himself "MDE" (Most Dominant Ever) should not be ranked behind dozens of other players in scoring and rebounding, and he should not be outside the top 10 in BPG.
Marcel
Kobe was better than Shaq in every way idk how anyone has Kobe outside they top 5 I got him 3 all time
Shaq had enough desire to be top 10 all time but not enough to be the greatest Of all time
Made was real from 99-2004 he was crazy dominant at peak
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