Photo credit: ‘First Take’
By Reice Shipley on

Lead ESPN NBA insider Shams Charania is regarded as one of the most well-known and well-respected personalities in all of sports media. But on Wednesday, he received significant backlash from Jimmy Butler’s agent after citing him in a report on the Miami Heat potentially trading their star player.

On Tuesday, Charania first sparked rumors of potential trade talks involving Butler when he detailed in his “Inside Pass” column that the Heat are “open to listening to offers for Butler and making a deal if the proposal is right.”

On top of that, he detailed that his agent, Bernard Lee, had indicated to “league circles” that his preferred landing spot in a trade included the Houston Rockets, the Dallas Mavericks, and the Golden State Warriors.

On Wednesday, Charania added in a post on X that another team had entered the mix, detailing that the Phoenix Suns were another team on Butler’s list of potential landing spots.

Shortly after this post was made, Lee took notice and responded in a series of posts on X in response, calling Charania’s report “complete and utter made-up bullshit.”

“Alright listen,” wrote Lee. “I gave you a pass yesterday because I was busy, but if you don’t stop putting my name on your complete and utter made-up bullshit because you know you normally aren’t worth my time to acknowledge…”

“I don’t know what I’m going to do because I’m a middle-aged dad but just know it would indicate severe dislike,” the agent continued. “World… all this is fabricated. I have never and honestly it wouldn’t help me or the position I represent to do anything that’s been reported by said ‘journalist.'”

“Shams, this is your opportunity to say my bad. I let ChatGPT write my tweets and it went old school Peter Vescey… Be a trendsetter… Invent the new I was hacked. Carry on all. Thank you.”

The real question here is whether Lee is outright calling Charania’s entire report about the Heat listening to trade offers and his preferred destinations false, or just the part where Charania cited Lee about Butler’s preferred landing spot.

It’s one thing for Shams to get a report wrong. That happens from time to time to any insiders. However, it’s inherently a bad look for someone like Lee to proclaim that he had said nothing of the sort of what Charania was reporting he had.

Interestingly, Heat owner Micky Arison re-posted Lee’s response to Charania on his own social media account. So perhaps this lends some credence to the entirety of Charania’s report being false, or at least inaccurate.

Either way, Butler was largely unfazed by the rumors when asked by reporters on Wednesday, instead choosing for focus on both his individual and the overall team performance.

“That’s fine with me,” said Butler when asked about the rumors. “I appreciate going out there and hooping. I appreciate going out there and being efficient, being effective, and helping my team win. I appreciate it all. I don’t ever take playing basketball for anybody for granted. Right now it’s about competing, staying healthy, and playing some great basketball. I think I’ve done that so far. So we’ll see what we got.”

[Bernard Lee on X]

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.

View all posts by Reice Shipley