It is the JR Sport Brief Show here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. I'm coming to you live from Atlanta, Georgia.
Thank you to everybody tuned in and locked in all over North America. My people on the highways, the byways, the roads, the freeways, all of it. The back roads. I love I love people on the back roads. So whether you happen to be on the back road or the front road, thank you for being here.
Be hanging out with you for the next two hours. This is a four hour show. I get started every weekday 6 p.m. Eastern, 3 Pacific. Thank you to our producer holding it down in New York City. Ryan Botcher doing an excellent job. You can always listen to this show on the free Odyssey app.
You heard me. It's free. You don't you don't got to pay to listen to the show. It's free.
Free Odyssey app. Thank you to people listening live on their free radios, wherever they might live, on their local affiliate. We got people on Sirius XM Channel 375. If you got a smart speaker, ask the speaker to play the Infinity Sports Network.
Oh, yeah, by the way, you can do this, too. You can watch the live stream of the show. Yeah, I'm live live on YouTube. Just go to YouTube and pull up the Infinity Sports Network. Hey, a big shout outs to everybody watching alive.
Thank you so much. And you can be a part of the show. You can. You got a phone.
You got an opinion. Have you spoken to somebody today? You want to talk to me? You can't. 855-212-4227.
That's 855-212-4227. I'm also on the Internet. Don't open up your phone. Don't type nothing in if you driving. Don't hurt nobody.
Safety first. You can find me everywhere. Every social media platform. I am at JR Sport Briefs. So wherever you are, I'm there, too. You got Facebook? I'm there.
Yeah, even I even started a TikTok just in time for them to maybe shut it down. I'm everywhere. I'm on Instagram. It's sitting in a bowl of Cheez-Its. Oh, yeah.
People still hit me up about that. Hey, Batra, did you know did you know I was the cheese caster at the Citrus Bowl? Did you see me in a bowl of Cheez-Its?
I actually tuned in exactly when they cut to your interview and I was like, oh, my gosh, it's JR. Sitting in a bowl of Cheez-Its. The entire game? Oh, yeah. I was just in it. Well, let's just say for about. Yeah, I was I was just I was about in it the whole game.
Yeah. Best seat of the house, man. Best seat.
There's Cheez-Its everywhere. Well, I was sitting in a bowl of them, but I was elevated. I was high up.
There was nobody obstructing my view. The band was behind me. You had the what do you call it? I don't even know what you call them. There's the cheerleaders and then there's the other people that do all the flips and stuff.
What are they called? Tumblers? I don't know. Isn't cheer tumbling the same thing? Dance team, cheer team, same thing? No. Yeah, because cheer is like the flippers and the other stuff. Oh, no. That's offensive to them, I think.
Really? They're the same group. They should be collective unit. The team, the cheerleaders. You see, when I think cheerleaders, wait, wait, wait, you're right.
Wait. The cheerleaders, but the cheerleaders don't dance. They cheer. There's the there's the dance team. There's a dance team.
There's a cheer team. You're right. You're right. You're right. And so the guys who flip them people up in the air, they're the cheerleaders, too, right? Yeah. Yeah. I don't remember any of this stuff. I don't know.
I barely went to class. I don't know what the hell these people were doing. Oh, flipping.
Yeah, you're right. They were flipping. Well, they were flipping to the left of me.
They were flipping to the right of me. And then there was football in front of me with Clemson and Illinois. And then the coaches were people were hitting me up going, hey, why do the coaches hate each other? I'm like, yeah, I'm sitting in a bowl of cheeses.
You think I'm seeing a coach's beef? There was so much going on. And it was it was interesting. Yeah. Somebody saw me yesterday and just like, hey, J.R., I was I was sitting in a hospital bed and I was drowsy and I was I was out of it and I'm watching the game and I'm going, that looks like that. That's J.R. sitting in a bowl of cheese. Yes.
So people thought they were hallucinating. But here I am not as people can see on the stream if you're watching on the stream, no longer in a bowl of cheese, it's but just sitting in a regular chair. You know what, Ryan?
I think about it. They should have let me keep that bowl. You should have moved it to the studio, the bowl 24 seven in Jesus.
Oh, my God. You know, I had to get in a ladder to get in that bowl. That's how big that thing was. We could get a ladder for the for the bowl. To be honest, as I look at the studio door on the other side of the camera. That bowl would not fit through this door.
No. There's a way around it. We can get like a change, the Geek Squad or something, reassemble it. The door or the bowl?
Both open door, you know, works. The bowl would have to be splitting eight different ways to even get in the door. That was a that bowl had to have been, I don't know, 15 feet off the ground. Was I that high?
No, people could. Yeah, they had to step on the platform and look over me. I might have been eight feet, nine feet off the ground. Yeah. Good times. Not something I ever envisioned in my life, sitting in a bowl of Cheez-Its.
We'll see if it ever happens again. But anyway, you want to see me sit in a bowl of Cheez-Its? Did you miss me on New Year's on ABC? Go ahead and look at that on my Instagram.
Tons and tons of fun. Anyway, 855-212-4227. That's 855-212-4227. If you want to give me a call. How about this? You know, and thank you again.
Oh, so much. In our last, well, not in our last break, but last hour, we were joined by Saad Youssef, who came through and talked to us about the Dallas Cowboys. He covers the Dallas Cowboys for the athletic. That's not the only big, what happens?
Where does this guy go? Not the only thing going on in the world of sports. The Dallas Cowboys, Deion situation. Jimmy Butler suspension, his seven game suspension, it ends today. Jimmy Butler still has not been traded. Jimmy Butler is still a member of the Miami Heat.
We get messages to Jimmy Butler and met with Pat Riley, still told him that he wanted to leave. This is just bad. Looks bad for Jimmy Butler.
Forget the Heat. Looks bad for the NBA. Got a player just trying to bully his way into a contract and a deal.
It's just sad all the way around. We're going to be joined by James Jackson. He covers the Miami Heat for the athletic. He'll be here in about 15 minutes. And I want to ask him, what the hell is going to happen with Jimmy? The NBA trade deadline is February 6th. It's January 16th. Is Pat Riley, pardon the pun, is he going to stand Pat? Is he going to tell this guy, I'm not moving you.
I can't get value for you. You're old. We'll get into all of that with James in about 15 minutes. Let's talk about something positive. And this is crazy to say. We all know we all know the Philadelphia Eagles and the Rams, they go at it in the divisional round of the NFL playoffs. They face each other this upcoming Sunday. Lots of fun. Terrific. Well, maybe not so terrific for the Rams. They should be fearing for their lives.
They got to take on a Saquon Barkley. We'll get into that in a second. Yesterday, as we talked about Philadelphia and their fans, the city of my birth, maybe that explains a lot.
It's like a little bit of a love and a hate. You know, like yesterday, for instance, we got all these stories about how the players in Philadelphia, the Eagles players, they love Nick Sirianni. Why? Because he will fall on the sword for the team.
A.J. Brown is on the sidelines reading the book and tells the media, give him a break. Nick Sirianni never sounds sure of himself. People, people laugh at him. I laugh at him.
He just sounds like a stumbling guy. But the players, they love him. Meanwhile, we got a guy who got fired and is now banned from ever stepping foot in Lincoln Financial Field because he wanted to verbally assaulted a woman, a Packers fan. And so there you have the tale of two cities. Got the players who love their coach.
And then at the same time, you got the fans who, in a lot of cases, they they hate the opposition. Now, let me tell you something. I've seen Eagles fans forget the Santa Claus thing.
It's old, old cliche. Botcher, maybe you've seen this. I've seen young Eagles fans. I've seen them give the middle finger. I'm talking about like, like children.
They're almost big as toddlers. I've seen them give middle fingers to opposing fans, like giant fans and Cowboys fans. I've seen Eagle fans that are children flipping off adults and giving them the bird. Have you seen that before? Yep.
They're equal opportunists. Everyone gets it. Man, how old do you have to be to learn the middle finger? I guess you learn it in, I don't know, kindergarten?
The meaning of it or like just doing the action. You think a child who gives somebody the middle finger doesn't know what it means? Sometimes.
No. Like it's like a baby to like four years old. They really don't know the meaning. Yeah, they don't know what the hell their hands are for. You know, they're just doing stupid stuff. Yeah.
I'd say, I'd say like 10 years old. They know what they're doing. You think, you think it takes a 10 year old to know what the middle finger is? Yes.
The meaning in context. Oh no, no, no, no, no, no. I'm going lower than that. I'm going, I'm going five, man. Five. You know, in some case I'm going four and five. I think the minute that you, you, you're in school, I think you learn what that middle finger is.
I think you do. You think 10? How old is a 10 year old? The 10 year old is what, in third grade I think or something? I don't know. Uh, kind of close.
It's going to be. Fifth grade? Fifth grade? It sounds like fifth grade.
Okay. Bruh. You don't think of third grade enough? Uh, yeah, yeah. You, you, do you remember being in third grade? It was rough times.
Yeah. Think about some of the things that you heard in third. Do you know how much I knew by the time I, I feel like I was in second grade, second grade, I lost all my innocence.
I think I heard every curse word and symbol and you open up a textbook and their words in a textbook that you've never seen in your life. I'm like, Whoa, what is this? Whoa. Okay. I'm not not going to repeat this at home.
I'd have no teeth. You know, Eagle fans are vicious, but I will give them some props because there was a group of Eagles fans. God bless them. They have raised over $10,000 on GoFundMe for the California Community Foundation to help aid and the wildfire relief efforts out in Los Angeles County. The GoFundMe says we know the Rams, our opponent, are our opponent.
And obviously LA is dealing with seriously crazy stuff. I thought it might be nice ahead of the game to offer some help and support LA's way from birds fans. There we go.
And especially after that horrible fan made life miserable for an opposing Packers fan that went viral. This fund is organized by Eagles fans in the Philadelphia area. We're still going to kick the Rams butts. They said butts. Good.
But there's plenty of people still in around LA that could use some help right now. And so good for them. Good for them.
And you know, how about this? Not that I expected. Wouldn't it be cool if the Eagles themselves and maybe I've missed it.
I certainly looked. Wouldn't it be cool if the Eagles kicked over some money as well? It's not an obligation. I mean, for the past past week, but the NFL has certainly done its share. I think the NBA has done its share as well in trying to raise money and donating a million dollars. I think every sports team in Los Angeles collectively chipped in, I think, a million dollars each. That would bring the relief efforts up to eight. As I told you, the NFL and NBA, they're really pushing.
I think it's the Red Cross. They're doing their part. And I even I see people still complaining about that. I saw somebody say, oh, the NFL can give more in Los Angeles. Lakers can give and donate more than one million dollars. They sure as hell can. You can't tell and force people what to do with their money.
I get it. People are hurting. Times are hard. It's it's awful. I mean, we even heard LeBron James. You know, after the game last night, LeBron James is telling everybody, you know, he had to evacuate out of his house due to the fires. And it's just bad. This is this is LeBron James from last night. He told everybody, yeah, the wildfires are terrible.
This is what he told Sportsnet L.A., you know, just figuring it out. But, you know, stand strong for one another. Obviously, that's most important, you know, and, you know, the friends that are our friends that lost their home, just being there for them is very challenging, especially when you got kids and you lose your home and all their belongings.
And my friend got a wife and things that it's just a lot to try to have to wrap your head around it. So, you know, I'm very happy that my family is safe. Hopefully things are contained or continue to be contained. And hopefully at some point we can start to push forward and move forward and kind of put it behind us where we can, you know, rebuild our city, rebuild this beautiful city and things of that nature. But, yeah.
Yeah. That is because Coach lost his house. J.J. Riddick don't have a house. I mean, Victor Webb and Chris Paul gave him gave his kids jerseys so they could kind of restart their jersey collection because they lost what they had.
It don't matter how much money you have. Imagine just you can't get back things that have sentimental value. When it's gone, it's it's gone. You know, this is terrible. Much love to everybody out in L.A. And shout out to the Eagles fans. And they did something nice. Yeah. Hickey was saying yesterday people in Philadelphia wouldn't go for the free hugs.
I beg to differ. We got a bunch of nice people in the world, more nice people than naughty. I sound like Santa. Anyway, the guy who got pelted by snowballs by Eagles fans is the J.R. Sportbreeze show here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network.
We're going to take a break when we come back. Speaking of Santa, I know he's on vacation right now, what, for the next 11 months or something like that. We got to talk about somebody who's on Santa's naughty list.
This is absolutely terrible. He plays in the NBA. His name is Jimmy Butler.
Jimmy Butler's suspension should be over by now. What happens next? Is he still pushing for trade? Is he happy? Is he miserable?
Is he sad? We're going to talk about it all. We got James Jackson joining us from the athletic.
He covers the Miami Heat. You're locked into the J.R. Sportbreeze show. You are on the what's the nice list.
Yeah, you're on the nice list. You're listening to the Infinity Sports Network. Don't move. You are listening to the J.R. Sportbreeze. It's the J.R. Sportbreeze show here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. Hey, I told you we're going to have a chat with James Jackson who covers the Miami Heat for the athletic. We got to go ahead and hunt him down. He's ready to go. Welcome to the world of technology.
Sometimes things don't work. We're going to get a hold of of of James as soon as we can go ahead and get him on. Right before we went to break, though, I told you about the love and how great and amazing a select few of the Philadelphia Eagles fans actually are ahead of their matchup against the Los Angeles Rams. Some fans have been able to contribute more than ten thousand dollars towards a GoFundMe that they created to help in aid in the wildfire relief efforts in Los Angeles. And so good on those fans. And they put a jab in there, not a jab, a light jab. They said, we're still going to kick your butts. And they said butts.
They could have said asses, but they said butts. And to be quite frank, to be honest, it was absolutely amazing what the Los Angeles Rams did this past Monday against the Minnesota Vikings. They went out there. They won. They smashed them at Sam Donald looking silly. The final score.
Twenty seven to nine. They handled business. It was nice. It was good. They had to play that game in Glendale, Arizona, because their own stadium is just crap.
Well, it's not crap. They had to move because of the fire. And they had to play in Glendale.
Now, no more SoFi, even though SoFi is typically filled with opposing fans and the fans traveled. I give them all credit. And so the Rams walk away with a victory. But I don't feel as optimistic against the Eagles. The Eagles handled business themselves, beating up on Green Bay, 22 to 10. You could say there was an issue with the offense, at least the passing offense. That's not the first time we've heard this this season when it comes down to the Philadelphia Eagles.
We saw the A.J. Brown have one catch. And this man was sitting around reading a book on the sidelines.
So he's reading a book and people are saying the offense is terrible and this is the worst thing in the world. But when we get down to this game on Sunday. I think the Eagles, they're going to beat the Rams. And if not, I know everybody loves Nick Sirianni all of a sudden. Nick Sirianni is going to get the blame.
Nick Sirianni is going to be dragged from pillar to post. If they don't have success, if they don't beat these Rams. And I know what the Rams did. They just sacked Sam Donald nine times, had this man running for his life, had him turning the football over. We saw what Jared verse and Braden Fisk were able to do out there. These Florida State guys just showed up and have showed out for the Rams in their defense.
But here's the deal. There's no Aaron Donald in the middle anymore. These Rams, they're vulnerable up the middle. They were 22nd against the rush.
And you want to know who you have the blame and you want to know who you have to ask? Just ask Saquon Barkley. Because the last time these two teams plays played against each other just in November, Philadelphia beat them 37 to 20. 37 to 20. Saquon Barkley had 255 yards rushing on the ground. Here, let's do some math again.
I'm going to tell you this one more time. This past season, the Los Angeles Rams were 22nd against the run. 22nd. Saquon Barkley against them rushed for 255 yards. This is not a good combination.
And if you could find a reason why I should change my mind to think not that he's going to rush for 250 yards, but to think that he's not going to whip their ass, please tell me. I don't know what the magic sauce or secret is. You either have the talent or you don't. It's kind of crazy. Sean McVay, the head coach, the boy genius. I guess he's still a boy genius. The head coach of the Los Angeles Rams.
He said yesterday the first matchup. Yeah, it didn't go the way we wanted it to. I think when you have humbling experiences with the right kinds of people, those are where the real growth ops exist. And I think we had a lot of guys that really, as a team, you can look inward and you can say, is this really what we want to be about? Where are the things that we can adjust, adapt from a coaching perspective? And then where's the sense of urgency that's going to be required for coaches and players to be able to execute the way that we want? Yeah. There's a lot of coach speak.
Forget all of that. Hey, Sean McVay, I need you to do me a favor. How in the hell are you going to stop Saquon Barkley?
There are ways that you have to be able to change up looks because if they get a beat on what you're doing and you just sit in the same front structures, they will pound you and they will embarrass you. And so we'll have to do a great job and that'll certainly be a major part of our focus and concentration. Man, he, he talks like he's been coaching for 30 years and I appreciate listening to him coach very different than, uh, than Miami's coach. I mean, damn, every time he speaks is, uh, is very different than, I mean, Nick Suriani, Nick Suriani always has difficulty, uh, just stringing, uh, just stringing a sentence together.
Listen to Nick Suriani. He talks about how, yeah, we beat him the last time, but the Rams are different right now. They're playing really good football. Um, I think that was pretty obvious when we went in to play them last time too. You know, they had one four out of five before we played them.
Um, and then pretty much have been undefeated since then. Um, so they're playing really good football, you know, um, both offensively, defensively, special teams wise, and you expect that because they got good players and they got good players. And I, and I, again, can't say enough about this coaching staff. Um, I really think that they have a really good coaching staff led by Sean McVay. Oh, everybody knows Sean McVay is a great coach. It was like popping up at the super bowl, like nobody's business. And so it's going to be interesting to see how the Rams go out there and they stop Saquon.
That's really what it down to. I mean, Jalen hurts. You think the Philadelphia Eagles, they got issues. Jalen hurts has to get the ball to AJ Brown.
Otherwise he's going to be reading the Bible on Sunday. Jalen hurts. This is what he had to say about the Rams even attempting to shut down Saquon.
I don't think that there's been a game where he's, he's been taken away. Right. But they try to, yeah.
That's what I'm saying. They try, you know, he's a, he's a great player, you know, and I think we compliment each other well. And he's been able to just get dirty yards, dirty yards, dirty yards.
And soon enough he pops one off. And so that's, that's been a big part of our success this year as a team. Yeah. You can't, you can't stop them. You can only hope to contain them. It's got a 2000 yard rusher and 17 games lighting everybody up. Everybody up. Well, they got their problems too. Remember I told you about AJ Brown.
This man is influencing the Amazon bestseller list. Well, Jalen hurts that man. We're good. We're fine.
We're okay. We just have to get into a better rhythm. Looks different. Every game is different. Like I said, um, I thought, uh, I think you guys need to understand that I don't, don't play the game for anything other than to win. And my role in each game will be different. And the approach in each game is different.
And, you know, you just want to go out there and do your job and, um, take advantage of opportunities, obviously. And I think some things are magnified a little bit more because there's less opportunity in certain areas, but ultimately it's about winning the game. Yeah.
You got to do things different. The last time he was criticized for not being able to throw the ball AJ Brown, the next game, they went in the head and they threw the ball to AJ Brown. Do I think they're going to force the issue? We're going to make this guy get touches. Do I think, and God bless AJ Brown. He could be out here completely complaining. He's complaining his ass off like Deontay Washington, who currently doesn't have a job in the NFL teams are cutting him. Houston cut him because he just complained not, not having touches. He just got picked up by the Ravens just for draft compensation. He's not going to play, but terrible. You, I got to give AJ Brown credit.
He's reading books. He's not complaining. Good for him. We've seen worse. We've seen plenty worse Eagles will be fine.
They're not going to force the issue. And the last time that they played against him, rushing the ball against Saquon worked. Maybe if the Rams divert and put so much pressure and attention on Saquon to open things up for AJ Brown, we'll see what happens.
I think they just have way too much firepower. Their defense is actually damn good. One of the best defenses in the NFL flattened period. The Eagles have kind of filled in a lot of the holes and issues that they had last year. I know the Kobe is now out. You're missing a key linebacker, but I think the Eagles will certainly be fine and the Rams. Well, they can look forward to a little bit of a, I don't want to say vacation because they got to go back to Los Angeles and deal with the horrific fires, but their season is about to be over unless they're going to win and provide a lot of inspiration to everybody out there.
You know what? Even Sean McVay alluded to this. He said, Matthew Stafford, this guy's been here. This guy's, this guy's helped us win a championship.
This guy can be clutch and he's been damn good at the end of the season. We believe in him. You can just kind of feel it. There's an aura that he had about himself. And I could really feel that when we were practicing on Saturday at Arizona's facility. And I felt that really from our whole team, but certainly with him as the leader and being in a position where you're naturally thrust into a leadership role, when number nine's feeling good, it sure makes me feel good too, Wyatt. Yeah, he feels good. What's he going to say? I don't believe in a guy. Of course not.
Not going to say that. Hey, Botcher, who do you think is winning this? You're going with the, the Philadelphia Eagles. You're going with the Rams. Uh, my mind says Eagles, but my heart says Rams. So I'm going to go with my brain and said the Eagles are going to beat the Rams.
Your heart says Rams because of the tragedy in, in, in California and the experience with, with Stafford and previous playoffs. I think they, they have the grit that they can get through this. They don't have Aaron Donald.
No, but their defense is still very, very good. Let's see if that defense can stop Saquon. I'm taking the under on a Saquon having 255 yards. Uh, but I, I think, uh, Saquon is going to handle business.
This guy bust out like runs are like 70 yards plus twice. The last time they went against each other. Let's see if they can bottle them up a little bit and at least open things up for Devante Smith and AJ Brown.
I think they have a good chance of doing so. It's the JR sport brie show here with you coast to coast on the infinity sports network. I think we're all good to have a chat with James Jackson on the other side of the break. He is the reporter for the athletic. We're going to see the latest or we're going to hear the latest as to what's going on with Jimmy Butler. Is he being traded? Is he staying?
Is he going? And what's his status and free agency and his option is a, you want to, I like drama with the Cowboys. I don't like this drama with Jimmy Butler. We're going to talk to James Jackson on the other side, but right now it's a news flash with rich Ackerman. You're listening to the JR sport brief. It is the JR sport brie show here with you coast to coast on the infinity sports network.
Yeah, there's so much talk about people going and coming and leaving and signing and being traded and moving in the NFL, but there's a big story in the NBA right now as well about a superstar player who apparently wants to move on or is not moving on or wants to be traded or doesn't want, there's so much to discuss to talk about the Miami heat and Jimmy Butler joining us right now is someone who covers the heat for the athletic. His name is James Jackson. James, how are you, man? I'm doing great, man. I'm grateful, man. How are you doing, Jr? I appreciate your time, man.
Thank you for taking the time to hop on. I guess the biggest question, what's the latest with Jimmy Butler? There's meetings with the owner and Pat Riley.
What's the latest? The best way to put it is signs are pointing to him returning to the team as my colleague Sam Amick was pointing out earlier this week, actually. And to your point about just the comings and goings and just the fluidity of everything, Jimmy returning to the team doesn't necessarily have to mean that he's going to return to the lineup tomorrow because remember last month when he had about a two-week layoff before his two-game return, he was returning to conditioning to get himself into shape. And so as I alluded to with Sam's report earlier this week, Jimmy's biggest thing was making sure that he just wasn't going to lose coins further because he was already fined about two and a half million dollars from the seven game suspension. And so at this point, he isn't on the injury report and he is looking to get back into the lineup with the team.
But at the same time, you want to quell all the stress and stuff that everyone's been obviously noticing. You're talking about the trade demand that he was reported to have, the team fielding offers for him, of course, but the market hasn't bared out like the way that either Jimmy would have liked or for Miami to have liked, we either solved this by now. But at this point, Jimmy's making sure that he's keeping his money in his pocket, but also making sure that he can play good with the team, you know, in good faith and being sure that they can move this on as peacefully as possible. We know the trade deadline is going to be February 6th. I mean, I guess there's a possibility.
Do you believe you'll still be on the team past that? I could see it honestly, just because it says more about Miami's history with stars and discontent, of course. You know, like Dwayne Wade, he left town here, went to the Bulls, went to the Cavs, had a cup of coffee elsewhere before he came back.
And then he just got a statue last year. LeBron led the team to a few finals runs and such like that. Wasn't happy, went back to Cleveland. And so it wouldn't surprise me if Miami is going to do what's going to be best for it. And if no trade has obviously come about just yet, the Heat aren't going to rush into something before it's ready, especially given the fact that Jimmy is effectively going to be a rental if he does go to another team.
You know what I mean? James Jackson is here with us, covers the Heat for the Athletic. We have heard from Ty Lee Hero and Eric Spulcher, they've made points about, hey, we got to pay attention to the guys who are actually here. And Kevin Love puts up a, I don't want to call it a vague post, but he's just like, he's not leaving and he's coming back and all of this. What does this mean for the actual chemistry of the team? Honestly, Coach Eric Spulcher does a great job of making sure the focus trickles down of just focusing on game to game. And so the team just came back from a six game West Coast road trip and it split those. And including the 36 point loss that it had the day after suspended Jimmy, it's three and four since he has last play for the team. But at the same time, over that six game road trip, the team had a top three defense, so it was still playing to its identity.
It was moving the ball well, too, honestly, too. It was given opportunities for players like Hamihaka as junior to step up. He led them in the fifth while they were away. You had Nikolai Jovic, who sees Jimmy as a big brother, honestly. He was stepping up into his role as such as well. Kolo Ware, who a lot of Heat fans have wanted to get minutes as much as possible.
He led the team in blocks and field goal percentage on the road. And so obviously the Jimmy stuff has made for external chatter and interesting clickbait and everything for everyone else. But the Heat game to game, even if they're struggling to close out games or maintain leads or really find their footing, they've been making sure that they keep their focus on the game plan just because two things can happen from this.
You alluded to it. They could either trade Jimmy and they're already getting a little bit of a head start on having life without him, or Jimmy comes in and bolts as a team that's growing into his debt. So in either case, the Heat are just making sure they keep their focus on the court because Bam said it a few weeks ago, honestly, like this is between Jimmy and the front office. Like Bam isn't the general manager. Tell your heroes not the general manager and say all of this stuff pans out just fine. You know, it could be awkward, but Jimmy comes back and maybe they make another playoff run. Who knows? Wow. Well, Pat Riley has certainly, you know, spoken publicly about this and Leboutin and what have you making jokes about, Hey, you know, maybe I am washed up.
I think that's far be it from the case. This is a team that went to the finals a couple of years ago. How do fans in Miami feel about this situation and Pat Riley, people aren't thinking that he's, he's kind of fallen off a little bit and he's, he runs it with too tight of a fist that the thoughts aren't changing about Pat, are they?
No, you can't not nine championships. He's been part of what, 34% of the league's NBA finals appearances and such. Um, I guess the proverbial notion of it could be, this is how the sausage is kind of made. You know what I mean? Like, it's not fun to see them be seeing the team beef with the star players, but the heat runs to a different beat in comparison, like other teams, honestly. So in this instance, you know, this has been going on since like last year when Jimmy was saying, Hey, if I was playing in the playoffs, we would have advanced Pat saying, Hey man, like, we don't want to really hear that that happens, you know, but Pat's from a different cloth.
You know what I mean? Like he comes from a different class of things where he wants things to be proven on the court. But when you're talking about the money and stuff being involved, like it's understandable for Jimmy to be wanting to put his long-term future with some sense of clarity. And so this is just business happening. In my opinion, when you have a situation where, like, as we allude to Dwayne Wade, LeBron James, even along the morning, people love along the morning down here. And he had to leave too after a contract disagreement. And so a lot of people, to be honest with you, the temperature that I pay from everything is not fun. Of course, it's like seeing two parents like fight with one another, but it's business too.
And it'd be like that sometimes. James Jackson here with us from The Athletic. So the public perception of Jimmy Butler, although nationally people are like, this guy is a royal pain in the ass. You think about his stops in other cities, whether it be Minnesota, Philadelphia, what have you, the perception hasn't changed about Butler in Miami? People are, I mean, people are frustrated with the situation, but that's more so to what you allude to. The team has been making finals runs since they got him about five, six years ago.
And that says more about wanting to get back to the status quo than anything else. Jimmy gets back into the lineup tomorrow and he's dropping 30 points and getting 10, 12 rebounds and addition assists. And he's shooting a career high 55% this season. Honestly, he's also shooting about 56% in clutch time situations too.
And the, he has like what a big six losses by three points or less. You put him back in the lineup tomorrow, man, people will move on from this just because winning cures everything, everything. And so if people are frustrated with any of it, it says really a lot more about just wanting to get back to what feels good, you know, but in terms of like how Jimmy's perception has come off, he's going to his big face coffee shop.
He's like, yeah, he has good vibes and everything like that. But at the end of the day, people have to respect that business has got to be done. What is the most likeliest of outcomes? I mean, we're sitting here, let's say it's April, May and June.
You could even push it into the summer. What do you think is going to happen over the next several months with this team and in this situation? Well, we recently reiterated reportedly that he doesn't have any intentions on being on the team next season. But all that really boils down to whether or not the high end priority is more money or the regression in his role that he was frustrated by a few weeks ago. And at this point, if he does decide to exercise his fifty two point four million dollar player option for next season, that would honestly accommodate a trade if you wanted to go somewhere else. But that's going to be easier in the off season when teams have cap space and there's more flexibility.
There has been reports, of course, as Sanamic reiterated earlier this week, that Phoenix is the apple of Jimmy's eye. But Bradley deals no trade clause, holds up a whole lot of things. And if he does, and if rather Jimmy Butler does end up opting out of his deal, he'd be eligible with Miami for about a four year, two hundred and forty three million dollar contract. Or he can opt out and get three years up to one seventy one million elsewhere. But a lot of that at this point boils down to both parties playing nice because in Jimmy's case, you have to show that you can consistently dominate games. So that way teams aren't going to feel like they're mortgaging their future for rental. And then on Miami's case, you want to be able to say that, yeah, we want to make sure that he's in the lineup showing in good faith that you want to make sure that you can market it to market him rather to a team that is going to be able to give up something that's going to make it worth your future as well.
Bam out of bios. Twenty seven years old. Tyler here was twenty four years old and the latter is going to be up for a contract extension sometime later this year because that's coming up on two years since his last contract. And so Miami does have to focus on his future. But in order for Jimmy to aptly get what he wants to like, he's going to have to show that he consistently dominate games. But he's shown that he can still play, obviously. No one's going to question whether or not Jimmy can play. But in order for any of this to work or for you to have that one team that can come through and really have a deal that's going to finally make Miami want to pull the trigger, you've got to show that it's going to be worth pulling it off and you're not going to do that by just sitting them. The biggest thing that, you know, in terms of Jimmy's availability is the player participation policy. Like there are going to be chances in terms of the future of extenuating circumstances where the league could look the other way in terms of a star player sitting out extensively. But in Jimmy's case, the players union did come to his defense of the seven game suspension and they wanted to fight it on his behalf.
And so unless things like really, really get, really get bad, I would more so anticipate him being able to come back to the team in good faith and buy a time until it is that either he finds the trade by the deadline or they ride this out for the rest of the season, try to make one more playoff run, and then Jimmy gets the flexibility that he desires by opting out and seeking a contract elsewhere. And James, this is like two parents sticking together for the sake of the kids, where we know what's going to happen at the end. That's what it feels like, James. Yeah, it can kind of feel, it can kind of feel that way a little bit understandably, especially in a situation like you allude to with Pat. Like Pat can come off like, you know, he is stuck in like a different generation necessarily, but that's a man that's had an enduring approach to winning for years and decades.
And when you're talking about Jimmy Butler, he's also overachieved with this team and lifted it to heights that he hadn't seen since LeBron left. And so this is rightfully, you know, a battle between two egos, but at the same time, they're both established people in terms that are in terms of their success. And at this point, it is going to be a matter of making sure that this can be as amicable as possible. You're not going to do that by, you know, throwing dirt up against the wall and hoping that it sticks. But in the case of a lot, it seems as though Jimmy's going to find his right, his way back to the team, as I alluded to, keeping his coins and everything like that.
But you're not going to be able to inflame things and get the desired outcome. I hear that. James, thank you so much for the time. Where can people follow you and all of your work with The Athletic? Oh, I appreciate you, man. Well, you can find me on, you can find me at X, is it that they call nowadays? I ain't calling X. J.J. double underscore NBA at X or James underscore Lamar J at Instagram. And if you want to find me at The Athletic, you can find me in my work. We do heat today, just about every day covering the heat and anything that's going on with it. Today, we actually wrote about the youth movement that the Miami actually has going on when it, you know, just came back from a six game road trip. And so if anyone wants to support, can definitely find me there.
James, thank you so much. We'll catch you on down the line. Certainly tons of storylines down in Miami. It's the J.R. sport re-show here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. We're going to take a break when we come back on the other side.
We're going to give you an update on everything that we discussed. It's been a busy day in the world of sports. It's the J.R. sport re-show coast to coast. The Infinity Sports Network.
