The Jimmy Butler/Sixers/Embiid saga will not end.
On Wednesday, The Athletic's Sam Amick published this article, where Butler makes it clear he always wanted to be teammates with Joel Embiid.
The article come one day after Butler dropped 40 on the top-seeded Bucks to win Game 1 and then hours before Butler hit the game-winning free-throws to lead the Heat to a 2-0 series lead in the Eastern Conference semi-finals in the NBA Bubble. All the while, Embiid has been tweeting along during the games.
Butler told Amick that he heard about Embiid's tweets during his Game 1 40-point performance.
"They told me about it," Butler said. "I don't be on social media like that.
"That's my guy. Outside of basketball, I love that man to death. He knows that. I tell him every opportunity I get, and I appreciate him for making me a better player, a better leader, better at understanding so many different things. I talk to him all the time, and I tell him, 'I wish you were still in the playoffs, because you deserve a championship.' Because he works. He works at it, and that's just my guy. Yeah, I saw it, and I know that he still wanted me to be on his team. And I still wanted to be teammates with him. Let's not get that misunderstood. But here, with these guys, I'm not trading that for the world either."
Butler, who turns 31 this month, did not re-sign with the Sixers last offseason and instead was traded to the Heat for Josh Richardson. Reports have circulated that Butler was not particularly fond of the Sixers' head coach Brett Brown, which Butler has all but confirmed. It was also reported that Butler and Ben Simmons did not have a great relationship, as Simmons was upset that Butler became the team's primary ball handler late in games.
Embiid seems to be having too much fun with this situation. Either way, the cryptic tweets can't be enjoyed by the Philadelphia 76ers, whom are currently in the middle of a head coaching search.
