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Former Sixers talent Jimmy Butler is presently having a tremendous season for the Miami Heat, leading his side to an impressive 41-23 record in the Eastern Conference. Nonetheless, the 30-year-old could not help but take a quick stroll down memory lane to discuss his time with the Philadelphia 76ers last year.
For starters, Butler admitted that he did not exactly see eye to eye with Sixers head coach Brett Brown.
Man, Jimmy Butler is just unloading on Brett Brown on this J.J. Redick podcast. Redick says he liked Brown and had a good relationship with him, then acknowledges that Jimmy's relationship wasn't the same.
Butler: "Sure wasn't."
— David Murphy (@ByDavidMurphy) March 11, 2020
Butler arrived in Philly in November 2018 via trade following a public spat with his former team, the Minnesota Timberwolves. The 6-foot-7 swingman would join the likes of Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons to form a superteam in the East, but unfortunately for them, they could not get passed eventual champs, the Toronto Raptors, in the second round of the playoffs.
In Butler's mind, one of the biggest reasons behind Philadelphia's short-lived postseason run last year was because of coach Brown's decision to take the ball out of Simmons' hands.
Butler says putting the ball in his hands in the playoffs wasn't fair to Ben Simmons: "Even though we played great basketball, I don't think it was fair because the entire year, Ben had the ball. So you mean to tell me that in one playoff series you just switch it up like that?"
— David Murphy (@ByDavidMurphy) March 11, 2020
The former Sixers star would not stop there. He then would go on to say that this was not the only instance he disagreed with his former coach's decisions.
Butler: "I used to tell Brett, you know what, I think we should mix in me handling the ball a little bit. (Brown would say), "No, we do A to B. We do this." Cool. But I would be pissed. I'm not gonna complain about it. But I don't think that that was the best way of doing it…"
— David Murphy (@ByDavidMurphy) March 11, 2020
These are some pretty feisty comments coming from Butler, and as it appears, there has been no love lost between himself and his former Sixers coach.
As we all know, Butler's time in Philadelphia would not last long. With his narrative above, it has now become clear that his relationship with Brown was one of the main reasons why he decided to jump ship.
