The new tidbits continue to come out from Jimmy Butler during his time with the Philadelphia 76ers as he continues to drop hints as to why he left for the Miami Heat in the offseason. He gave a vague reason earlier in the season, but now he opened up on a big situation early in his time in Philadelphia.
He joined JJ Redick on The JJ Redick Podcast to discuss a multitude of things and one of those was a time in Portland when Butler reportedly yelled at coach Brett Brown and he “aggressively challenged” him.
Butler told Redick that it started a few weeks before the Portland incident. Brown brought Redick, Butler, Joel Embiid, and Ben Simmons for a film session before the Tobias Harris trade and as Butler explained:
We were sitting in there and nothing got accomplished at all. So I was like, and I told you this as we walked out: ‘JJ, why would I ever go back in there again? Nothing’s getting accomplished.’ Nobody’s saying nothing to anybody and we’re just sitting in there watching film and you can literally hear the thing just clicking and we’re all just looking around. I may have been two, three weeks there tops. So, I sat back and I’m watching. I ain’t saying nothing… these [expletive] think I’m an [expletive] anyways, let me be quiet. So I sit back, I’m hearing the click, click, click. I’m looking around. Click, click, click. Alright guys, let’s go practice. Why did we just go through this?
That did not sit well with Butler who is one of the more outspoken guys in the league. So, as the team headed to Portland and they had another film session, Butler spoke his mind this time
So, we fast forward to however many weeks I was over there and we’re in Portland and then that happens during a film session, because, once again, nobody’s saying nothing. So who was the individual to finally say something?
Then after that, Brown took the ball out of Simmons’ hands in the playoffs and he put it in Butler’s hands. That is another thing that did not sit well with Butler:
To this day, I don’t think that was fair to switch over like that. Even though I think we played great basketball like that, I don’t think it was fair because, the entire year, Ben had the ball. So you meant to tell me that in one playoff series, you’re just going to switch it up like that? I would have felt some type of way. I would think it’s [expletive] up to play one way the entire year and then be like ‘You know what? Boom. This is how we’re going to do it.’ and I used to tell Brett, ‘Brett, I think we should mix in me handling the ball a little bit’. ‘Nah, we play A to B, we do this’…I don’t think that was the best way of doing it in my opinion.
What about when Kawhi Leonard made his shot in Game 7?
A lot was going through my head. I already knew how I believe it would’ve worked out if that shot wouldn’t have went in and we go into overtime and we win. So the shot goes in, we go back to the locker room. I’m in awe a little bit and then after everything settles down, the first thing that comes to my mind is ‘Will I be back here? Will I have an opportunity to do this again with these guys?’ and to tell you the truth, I had a feeling it would be a ‘No’.
This continues to be set up as Butler possibly having every issue with Brown. It will continue to be a “he said, she said” type of situation, but everything Butler says suggests that it was due to his broken relationship with Brown. [lawrence-related id=27482,27455,27463]