Hall of Famer Tim Hardaway Sr. was not fond of Jimmy Butler’s “crybaby” trade-demand antics that led to him being dealt to the Warriors.
Butler’s tenure in Miami ended sourly at the trade deadline, as multiple suspensions and internal disputes led the Heat to trade him to the Warriors earlier this month.
“I didn’t agree with what he was doing — you’re under contract,” Hardaway said on SiriusXM NBA Radio about Butler’s behavior leading up to the trade.
“[Butler’s] a baby,” Hardaway added. “[He’s] a crybaby.”
He played for five different teams in his 13-year NBA career, including the Heat and Warriors.
Butler said back in December that he preferred to be traded. But at the time, Heat president Pat Riley responded with a “no” that Hardaway said he would have been familiar with in his era.
“We will make it clear — we are not trading Jimmy Butler,” Riley said.
Butler then responded to Riley’s proclamation with “conduct detrimental to the team” — walking out of a practice and missing a team flight that led to multiple suspensions.
Butler was then finally granted his wish of being traded.
“We used to get said ‘no’ to us all the time, and we used to know how to take it,” Hardaway said. “It’s a question, you get a yes or a no.”
Butler isn’t the only example of today’s players wielding more power than ever to force their way to where want to be. From James Harden to Kawhi Leonard to Kyrie Irving, trade requests by star players are fairly common.
This is not even Butler’s first time requesting a trade as he also demanded out of Minnesota in 2018.
It’s not just this era, as trade requests have been present in the NBA for decades.
Magic Johnson, Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O’Neal and Hakeem Olajuwon all at some point were denied trade requests in their playing careers.
But O’Neal did have his request granted on another occasion — and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Wilt Chamberlain and Clyde Drexler also had trade pleas fulfilled at some point in their careers.
Butler clearly wasn’t the first star to request a trade and won’t be the last.
Credit: Source link
