Fair or unfair, Jimmy Butler has a track record of getting into arguments/disagreements/fights with his teammates and coaches, so this may come as no surprise to Sixers fans.
Amid their fourth loss in their last seven games, videos of Butler getting into heated exchanges with respected veteran Udonis Haslem and head coach Erik Spoelstra went viral on Wednesday night.
Haslem appears to be telling Butler, "I'll beat your a**," in the video.
Butler, 32, has previously had reported incidents with Tom Thibodeau in Chicago, then Karl-Anthony Towns in Minnesota, and then Brett Brown in Philadelphia.
Spoelstra downplayed the severity of the incident after the game.
"You can use moments during the season to catapult you," he said after the 118-104 loss to the short-handed Warriors. "You can galvanize together over frustration and disappointment. Teams can also go the other way. I don't see that with our group. I don't see that with our locker room. But we have needed a kick in the butt."
The loss brings the Heat to 47-26, just 1.5 games ahead of the Sixers, Bucks, and Celtics now. Philadelphia has 10 games to go with a chance to earn the No. 1 seed in the East.
The predicament, however, is the No. 1 seed in the East will almost certainly have to face the Brooklyn Nets in the first-round of the playoffs. The Nets will get point guard Kyrie Irving back for home games soon, as it was reported that New York City Mayor Eric Adams will be dropping a private-sector mandate that precluded unvaccinated athletes from playing in their home arenas.