Former Maverick takes shot at Jimmy Butler regarding dramatic departure from Heat

The 2025 NBA Trade Deadline is one that is going to be remembered for the coming years and not just for Mavericks fans. Obviously, the big news in the Lone Star State is Dallas trading Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers for Anthony Davis. The move has been a disappointment so far after Davis was injured in his debut with the franchise.

With that being said, there were plenty of other moves that will have ramifications around the league. One of the other notable deals to go down was the Miami Heat finally moving the disgruntled Jimmy Butler, who publicly requested a trade and made his stance on the situation quite clear. The Heat settled on sending Butler to Golden State in a five-team deal that landed them Andrew Wiggins, Kyle Anderson, Davion Mitchell, and a first-round pick.

Feb 12, 2025; Dallas, Texas, USA; Golden State Warriors forward Jimmy Butler (10) during the game between the Dallas Mavericks and the Golden State Warriors at the American Airlines Center. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-Imagn Images | Jerome Miron-Imagn Images

Butler has drawn plenty of criticism from former NBA players for the way he handled himself on the way out of Miami. Some of the remarks are justified as it's hard to argue that the veteran didn't flat-out quit on a franchise that paid him hundreds of millions of dollars over the past few years.

Hall of Famer and former Maverick Tim Hardaway is one of those former players who has a harsh stance on Butler. During a recent interview with SiriusXM NBA, Hardaway laid his full thoughts on the situation on the table.

"I've been telling folks this for the past week, especially here [all-star weekend]. I didn't agree with what he's doing. You're under contract. You're a baby, you're a crybaby because they said no to you," Hardaway said. "We used to get no said to us all the time and we used to know how to take it. It is what is it. It's a question, you get a yes or a no, you might not like the question but you can't deviate and mess up the team.

"They said, 'no, we want to see you play more games, we don't want to be in the play-in games' if he played more games, they wouldn't have never been in the play-in games both years. Even though they went to the championship, they never would have been in the play-in games - that takes a lot out of you," Hardaway continued. "They want to say 'look, we want a week off, we want a week to prepare and we need that week because we play hard each and every game and we need to rest' so he wasn't willing to do that."

"And I fault them for letting him get away with a bunch of stuff too, you've got to nip it in the bud," Hardway added. "When he went after Spoelstra, told Spoelstra he would kick his butt at a timeout and they had to take another timeout because Udonis Haslem was circling around. That should've been like, 'yo, you're getting three to five games' you don't talk to the coach like that, you don't disrespect the coach like that."

Hardway spent 15 years in the NBA, including about a season and a half with the Mavericks in 2001-02. He was selected to the Hall of Fame in 2022. Hardway's son, Tim Hardaway Jr., played in Dallas for nearly half a decade before being traded to the Detroit Pistons over the summer. Hardaway Jr. was on the team that made a run to the finals less than a year ago.

The Mavericks already defeated the new-look Warriors, 111-107, on February 12. They'll have one more meeting during the regular season that is just around the corner when Dallas travels to Golden State on Sunday, February 23.

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