20 Second Timeout

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, 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 for speaking about the playoffs after not participating 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, while 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 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

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