Jimmy Butler’s agent responds to Rachel Nichols’ disparaging statement…Jimmy Butler’s agent responds to Rachel Nichols’ disparaging.. The NBA trade deadline is in a few days, and Jimmy Butler’s agency seems to be trying to minimize the harm.
The Miami Heat player Butler’s agent, Bernie Lee, retaliated this week to some recent comments made by NBA journalist Rachel Nichols on a podcast. According to Nichols, Butler forced the Heat team plane to wait on the tarmac for “hours” during a recent journey to a game in Milwaukee. She said that the six-time All-Star’s “disrespect[ful]” actions had worn down Butler’s Miami colleagues.
Nichols’ complete comments are available here.
On Saturday, Lee responded to Nichols by sharing a post with X that included the flight information for the specified date. On that date, the Delta aircraft from Miami to Milwaukee apparently left and arrived on schedule—in fact, it was a few minutes early.
Lee penned, “Man.” “Now, believe me, I understand the irony here, but just to put an end to this, this is the flight that keeps coming up.”
In a later report, veteran NBA writer Marc Stein also attested to the fact that the Heat team flight that day did, in fact, leave on schedule.
In a podcast, former NBA big man Channing Frye claimed that “the [Heat] team was waiting for [Butler] for a couple of hours on the tarmac.” This was the initial source of the flight report. We do know, however, that Miami punished Butler for two games at the time, claiming that he had completely missed the flight.
Lee’s tweet doesn’t demonstrate that his client was on the team flight or that he accurately informed the Heat of his whereabouts, even though Butler might not have been the real cause of the delay. It’s also important to note that Lee recently denied a Shams Charania article on Butler that turned out to be accurate.
