Hall of Famer and former Miami Heat star Shaquille O’Neal didn’t put current Heat star Jimmy Butler in his list of his top 20 NBA players.
O’Neal did have Heat big man Bam Adebayo on his list (at No. 20), but there wasn’t a single other Miami player ahead of him.
While O’Neal’s rankings may ruffle the feathers of Heat fans, Butler didn’t have the best season of his career in the 2023-24 campaign.
Butler averaged 20.8 points, 5.3 rebounds and 5.0 assists per game while shooting 49.9 percent from the field and 41.4 percent from beyond the arc, but he appeared in just 60 games. The six-time All-Star posted his second-lowest scoring average of his Heat career (the 2019-20 season he averaged just 19.9 points per game), and he failed to make the All-Star team.
More importantly, the Heat ended up with just the No. 8 seed in the Eastern Conference for the second-straight season.
Since coming to Miami, Butler has led the team to the NBA Finals twice (in the 2019-20 season and 2022-23 campaign) and the Eastern Conference Finals three times.
However, it appears that O’Neal believes that Adebayo has surpassed Butler as the team’s top player.
It’s possible this ranking could be extra motivation for Butler – who is in a contract year – to perform well in the 2024-25 season. Butler can opt out of his current deal at the end of the season to become a free agent.
It was recently reported that he intends on doing that, even if the Heat offer him a contract extension.
Butler seems focused heading into the 2024-25 season, as recently shared that all he cares about this season is winning with the Heat.
“If we’re being brutally honest, no matter what, nothing I do now is going to get me paid any more money,” Butler said. “Even though I don’t care about the money. All-NBA, dah, dah, dah, dah, none of that is going to matter. I’m at a point right now that I got more than enough money. I’m just here to win.”
Heat fans would love it if Butler makes O’Neal backtrack on his rankings by leading Miami to a big season in the 2024-25 campaign. The Heat are set to open the regular season on Wednesday, Oct. 23 against the Orlando Magic.
