Jimmy Butler belongs on the Heat

ESPN’s Jorge Sedano reported on Thursday that the Heat and Wolves were recently very close to reaching a deal to send Jimmy Butler to Miami, but that Tom Thibodeau raised the asking price at the very last minute, leading Heat jefe Pat Riley to shout a certain 16-letter word for disagreeable hombre and hang up.

Now I’ve never know Pat Riley to curse out his colleagues -- wait a minute, what’s that? Oh, Pat Riley is notorious for MFing his peers? Oh, right. Anyways.

The New York Times’ Marc Stein reports that it’s actually Wolves franchise owner Glen Taylor who had balked at the final deal reached between the teams twice, leading Thibs to raise the price much to the Heat’s chagrin.

Whatever the case, it now seems clear that Miami is the only team will to put up with Minnesota’s dysfunction long enough to poach Butler. It also seems as though Butler’s carnival of petty this week hasn’t scared off Riley. I mean, the Heat currently employ Hassan Whiteside and Dion Waiters, so a practice hijacking and autocratic players’ meeting are all relative, really.

Friday is the last night of preseason. The regular season begins on Tuesday. Here’s what you can watch Friday night in final preparation.

Rockets vs. Grizzlies, 8 p.m. ET, NBA TV
Lakers vs. Warriors, 10:30 p.m. ET, ESPN2

Dan Devine’s Ringer debut on the only important question circulating in Minnesota: now what?

There is legitimate debate as to whether Butler called a players’ meeting on Thursday once the Wolves cancelled practice. Butler and various plugged-in reporters said he did. Like every other Wolves player says he didn’t.

The seven most petty moments from Butler’s ESPN interview.

Big Sam Amick piece on how Jeanie Buss took over the Lakers and won almost immediately.

Bryan Curtis breaks down the sidle, a staple of elite scrum NBA reporting.

This is interesting: LeBron James is not quite conceding that his NBA Finals streak is effectively over. Is he quietly confident this weird Lakers team can compete?

Inside Brian Bowen’s new path to the NBA.

Really cool documentary podcast look at Will Barton’s life in basketball.

Where are all the women in play-by-play broadcasting? In related news, Meghan McPeak broke barriers by calling play-by-play for the Wizards in a preseason game on Wednesday.

Enes Kanter is legitimately one of the most interesting players in the NBA (who also says some pretty oddball things).

Jayson Tatum got a SLAM cover story and wore a Nelly bandage to rep St. Louis. Future MVP.

Be excellent to each other.