Tim Hardaway Sr., who enjoyed several years of South Beach stardom in the 1990s as a member of Pat Riley’s Miami Heat teams, has come to his former coach’s defense with a jab at Jimmy Butler III.
Tim Hardaway Sr. Calls Jimmy Butler III a “Crybaby”
“I didn’t agree with what [Butler] was doing. You’re under contract. You’re a baby. You’re a crybaby, because they said ‘No’ to you,” Hardaway quipped. “We used to get said ‘No’ to us all the time, and we used to know how to take it. It is what it is. It’s a question, you get a ‘Yes’ or a ‘No.’ You might not like the question, but you can’t deviate and mess up the team.”
Hardaway’s comments come in the aftermath of Butler’s lengthy standoff with team president Riley and the Heat front office, which culminated on Feb. 7 with Butler being shipped off to the Golden State Warriors in a mult-team exchange that landed Miami Andrew Wiggins, Kyle Anderson, Davion Mitchell, and the Warriors’ 2025 first-round pick.
Hardaway, who ironically enough was traded from the Warriors to the Heat in 1996, asserts that the cause of the rift between Butler and the Heat was due to him regularly missing extended periods during the regular season.
“[The Heat] said, ‘No, we want to see you play more games, we don’t want to be in the play-in games.’ If he played more games, [the Heat] would’ve never been in the play-in games [in 2023 and 2024]; even though they went to the championship [in 2024], they would’ve never been in the play-in games. That takes a lot out of you. They want to say, ‘Look, we want a week off. We want a week to prepare and we need that week because we play hard each and every game and we need to rest.'”
"[Jimmy Butler's] a baby. [He's] a crybaby"
Heat and Warriors legend Tim Hardaway Sr. had some choice words for Jimmy Butler with @TheFrankIsola and @TermineRadio #HeatCulture pic.twitter.com/26QkHPiF0V
— SiriusXM NBA Radio (@SiriusXMNBA) February 18, 2025
Hardaway also slammed Butler for his altercation with Heat coach Erik Spoelstra back in 2022, during which Butler, Spoelstra, and longtime Miami mainstay Udonis Haslem all had to be held back from each other.
“I fault [the Heat] for letting [Butler] get away with a bunch of stuff too, you know? You got to nip it in the bud,” Hardaway recalled. “When he went after Spoelstra, told Spoelstra he’d kick his butt at a timeout … that should’ve been, like, ‘Yo, you’re getting three to five games [suspension]. You don’t talk to the coach like that. You don’t disrespect the coach like that.”
LEAKED Audio Of The Jimmy Butler, Udonis Haslem, & Erik Spoelstra Scuffle In 2022👀:
Haslem: “I’ll beat your a**
Butler: “Don’t disrespect me”
Spo: “How am I disrespecting you? Bring your a** where?”
Also, you can see Butler telling PJ Tucker: “He’s coming at me now” pic.twitter.com/Rme56x7T0b
— LegendZ (@legendz_nba) September 30, 2023
Although he spent some time with the Heat after his playing career had ended as a Community and Corporate Liaison, Hardaway is no longer attached to the organization. However, it’s clear he’ll still go to bat for his old coach Pat Riley, and the team with which he earned a pair of All-NBA selections during his prime.
As for Butler, “crybaby” or not, he’s certainly been reaping the benefits of his trade request, as the Warriors are 3-1 since the trade, and the Heat have stumbled to a 0-4 record in the same stretch. Following the All-Star break, both squads will return to action on Friday, Feb. 21.
