Over the past few weeks, reports and speculation about the Miami Heat listening to trade offers for star forward Jimmy Butler have become rampant. So rampant in fact that on Thursday, Heat team president Pat Riley issued a statement to officially put an end to the speculation he believes has become a “distraction” for Heat players.
Earlier this month, speculation began when ESPN’s Shams Charania reported that the Heat were listening to trade offers for Butler. On top of that, he listed a number of potential landing spots that Butler would most prefer according to “league circles” that heard the information from Butler’s agent, Bernard Lee.
The next day, Lee called out Charania, claiming that his report was “fabricated”. Charania would then defend his reporting on the situation publically on the matter on numerous occasions and even claimed that the story was “his most vetted story” he has ever put out.
The back and forth between Lee and Charania created even more speculation as to who was telling the truth. And while we may never know whether the Heat were indeed listening to offers or not, we now know that they say there will be no trade involving Butler.
In a statement posted on the Heat X account, Riley issued a statement to try and end the trade conversation, definitively declaring that Butler would not be traded.
“We usually don’t comment on rumors, but all this speculation has become a distraction to the team and is not fair to the players and coaches. Therefore, we will make it clear. We are not trading Jimmy Butler,” wrote Riley.
Riley’s statement never declared that they had never listened to trade offers for Butler. So it is still entirely possible that Charania’s reporting on the situation was indeed accurate and the Heat simply didn’t like the offers that they got.
The Heat currently sit in the middle of the pack in the Eastern Conference at 14-13 on the year. So perhaps this statement from Riley is also an attempt at getting the Heat locker room to refocus without any outside noise to deal with.
Regardless, this at least puts a little more doubt into Charania’s reporting and perhaps more credibility into Lee’s claim that it was fabricated.
About Reice Shipley
Reice Shipley is a staff writer for Comeback Media that graduated from Ithaca College with a degree in Sports Media. He previously worked at Barrett Sports Media and is a fan of all things Syracuse sports.