Jimmy Butler Would Like The NBA To Investigate The Bucks For Tampering After The Damian Lillard Trade

Damian Lillard has finally been traded by the Portland Trail Blazers, but he is not headed to the Miami Heat as long has been expected. Instead, the Milwaukee Bucks were able to work out a deal to get Giannis Antetokounmpo a new superstar teammate, sending Jrue Holiday, a pick, and a pair of swaps to Portland in a three-team deal that also sees Deandre Ayton go to the Blazers for Jusuf Nurkic and more.

It was a wild, shocking trade announcement — a true Woj Bomb that came form out of nowhere — and it has left everyone around the league trying to figure out exactly what the full fallout will be. The obvious loser of the trade is Miami, as the Heat had designs on forming a new Big 3 with Dame, Jimmy Butler, and Bam Adebayo, but were never able to close the deal in part because they didn’t have the right assets to send back to Portland or a third team. Now, not only do they lose out on Dame, but Giannis was the next superstar potentially coming available after he applied pressure to the Bucks this summer to prove to him they wanted to win long-term before he inked a new extension.

That certainly seems to have been answered, and the Heat are left without a real good backup plan (maybe James Harden?) and have to figure out how to proceed. Jimmy Butler found out the way we all did when the Woj notification hit, and he posted his reaction on social media, somewhat cheekily calling on the NBA to investigate the Bucks for tampering.

There’s not really tampering to be done in a trade like this that doesn’t also feature a signing, but this is very funny from Jimmy. It’s about the only way to go about this if you’re Butler and the Heat, just laugh it off as best you can and get to work. Miami still has a good team, but they certainly have their work cut out for them if they’re going to make another run at the Finals with some serious heavyweights in the East and a roster that looks, on paper, to be worse than last year’s after the departures of Gabe Vincent and Max Strus.