NBA players — and front offices too, I’d bet — everywhere know that getting on Jimmy Butler’s bad side isn’t the best idea.
And on Wednesday night, Indiana Pacers forward T.J. Warren got on Butler’s bad side.
The resulted was a pair of incidents that eventually resulted in Warren being ejected. Then, Butler called out Warren in postgame interviews and then took to Instagram to literally circle the next time his Miami Heat would play the Pacers again.
Yep. You’re witnessing the birth of a new NBA rivalry.
Let’s start with the original incident: Butler didn’t like the way Warren fouled him in the third quarter of the game, and if you’re a lip-reader, you can see Butler had some NSFW language for Warren:
"You're f—ing trash."
Jimmy Butler and TJ Warren got tangled up, and both players had a few words for each other š¤¬ pic.twitter.com/C0VCJuuEFW
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) January 9, 2020
Then, Butler nailed Warren with a shoulder to the chest for a foul of his own … and Warren clapped right near his opponent, resulting in a second technical foul and an ejection. Butler blew him a kiss goodbye:
Jimmy Butler blows kisses to TJ Warren after getting him ejected š pic.twitter.com/BOLudjTeCG
— ClutchPoints NBA (@ClutchPointsNBA) January 9, 2020
It didn’t end there. Butler claimed that Warren said some disrespectful stuff to him. He then called Warren “soft” and “trash”:
āIf I were his coach, I would never put him on me, ever again. Iām going to tear his ass up every time; he is trash.ā
Jimmy Butler on T.J. Warrenpic.twitter.com/DZ66dwf7xH
— Hoop Central (@TheHoopCentral) January 9, 2020
And then Butler posted this on Instagram:
“@t.warren1 donāt be mad you canāt guard me. we will see what you about in March.”
Hoo boy. His teammates backed him up, too:
Legend https://t.co/kHsyfxccNG
— Meyers Leonard (@MeyersLeonard) January 9, 2020
Great team win vs @Pacers . Letās go @MiamiHEAT !!! #TheDragon š²š„ Good night pic.twitter.com/NToldzKrnv
— Goran DragiÄ (@Goran_Dragic) January 9, 2020
So, uh, see you all in March.
[jwplayer ZlSjtoxD-q2aasYxh]