Getty Miami Heat teammates Kyle Lowry, Jimmy Butler, Duncan Robinson chat during a 2021 game in Milwaukee.
Jimmy Butler has a penchant for saying whatever is on his mind. Some would call it charming, unless he’s taking aim at a teammate’s intelligence. That was the issue brewing in South Beach between Butler and Duncan Robinson.
The “sleeper pick” for NBA MVP recently referred to Robinson as “dumb” during a post-game press conference. He threw the insult out there twice: once with a straight face, then again with a smirk. Robinson seemed a bit confused by the apparent diss as he attempted to respond to Butler’s disparaging comment on his “Long Shot” podcast.
“I think it is partially tongue-in-cheek. Jimmy just has this kind of way of just speaking his mind in media sessions and for whatever reasons, he was inclined to say some disparaging things about yours truly,” Robinson said. “To be honest with you, I thought that the question was going to involve me in some capacity and it didn’t. He just kind of pulled my name out of thin air.
“Which, you know, whatever. It is something him and I kind of go back and forth on, I like to pride myself on having a pretty high basketball IQ, he doesn’t, clearly, think that’s true. But it’s just some good, quality, productive, teammate back-and-forth.”
Friendly trash talk aside, the Miami Heat have been rolling – prior to a 95-78 loss to Boston on November 4 – and own the second-best record in the Eastern Conference at 6-2. Butler was named Player of the Week after averaging 28.0 points, 8.0 rebounds, 5.3 assists, 3.25 steals in four wins. It marked the sixth time he has earned the honor in his career.
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Robinson’s Defense Snubbed by PJ Tucker?
Butler wasn’t the only teammate throwing shade at Robinson. Forward PJ Tucker omitted his name – purposefully or not – when talking about the team’s defensive intelligence and their ability to switch off screens easily.
The Heat have a 94.0 defensive rating this season.
That would be the best defense by any team since the three-point era (1980).
To be fair, Tucker only mentioned four players by name in the quote: himself, Kyle Lowry, Jimmy Butler, Bam Adebayo. But Robinson felt a need to defend his honor, adding that the part where Tucker says “we can yell at each other” included him.
“I think there was an omission in name-dropping,” Robinson said, “but I think that the part of the quote where I really shine is the, ‘We can yell at each other, and go out out there and play and be good.’ I think a lot of the yelling, I am involved with.
“Some of it’s motivating, some of it is encouraging, some of it is about doing something better, this or that. So while I wasn’t mixed in with talking about the switching and those guys obviously were, I still think there was a reference to me.”
Heat Ready for Utah Jazz
Miami hosts the Utah Jazz tonight (Saturday, November 6) at FTX Arena at 7:30 p.m. The team heads in relatively healthy despite a scary scene the other night when Kyle Lowry rolled his ankle trying to draw a charge. The starting point guard is listed questionable versus Utah, along with KZ Okpala (ankle). Marcus Garrett, Max Strus, Victor Oladipo have been ruled out, per Anthony Chiang of Miami Herald.
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‘Yours Truly’ Responds to Rough Comments From Jimmy Butler