MIAMI SHORES, Fla. (AP) — Jimmy Butler has been through these first-game-back matchups against former teams before. He got a standing ovation and a tribute video at Chicago in 2018. He got jeered in Minnesota in 2019. He got downright booed in his return to Philadelphia later that year.
Next up: His return to Miami on Tuesday.
And it's fair to expect a little of everything.
There will be a tribute video from the Heat, which is not uncommon for returning players who were All-Stars for the franchise. There almost certainly will be a thunderous introduction when his name is called alongside the rest of Golden State's starters. There will be some cheering. There will be plenty of booing. It all is to be expected, especially after Butler's final weeks in Miami were marred by three suspensions that preceded his trade to the Warriors last month.
“There are no hard feelings,” Butler said Monday after the Warriors practiced at Barry University. “I'm in a better place now for me.”
He wanted out, and the Heat eventually gave him his wish. The Warriors are 16-3 with Butler in the lineup, enough of a boost to help them claw out of play-in-tournament range for now and give them a chance at securing a guaranteed playoff berth with a top-6 seed. Butler seems happier and the Warriors are playing better, so it's been a clear win for Golden State.
Miami just snapped a 10-game losing streak. The Heat, who are likely resigned to the play-in tournament as their path to the postseason, are still adjusting to Life After Jimmy.
“Obviously there’ll be a lot of different feelings about it," Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said of Butler's return to Miami. "I probably won’t express all of them and that’s fair. But we had a great five-year run and we didn’t win the title. But only one team does. We had some great moments here.”
The Heat went to the Eastern Conference finals three times in the Butler era, made the NBA Finals twice and won 268 games, including playoffs, in his first five seasons with the club — the fifth most in the league over that span. But when he didn't get offered an extension last summer, the relationship began splintering. He was suspended three times for various violations of team rules and wasn't shy about making clear that he felt like a change of scenery was necessary. The Heat said they wouldn't trade him, then had no choice but to change course.
The Warriors made the offer that got the deal done, and suddenly they look like title contenders again.
“It’s been amazing. He’s of the best players in the league. He’s instantly transformed our team," Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. "We’re 16-4 since we got him. He’s a very unique talent. He’s a superstar, but he’s a subtle superstar. He doesn’t wow you with his leaping ability or shooting prowess or speed. It’s just his brute strength and his brain. He is one of the smartest players I’ve ever been around, and his ability to just generate open shot after open shot is impressive, and he’s obviously a great two-way player. He’s a hell of a defender. We’re lucky to have him.”
For the record, Butler's teams have gone 1-2 in the Jimmy-goes-back games in his career. Minnesota lost 114-113 at Chicago on Feb. 9, 2018, Philadelphia won 118-109 at Minnesota on March 30, 2019 and Miami lost 113-86 at Philadelphia on Nov. 23, 2019.
Butler insists that to him, Tuesday will be just another day.
“This is basketball. It’s very simple," Butler said. “I don’t have all the emotions that everybody thinks I’m going to have. It is what it is. I realize we had some great years here. I’ve built some incredible bonds with some individuals in the organization, in the city, hell, in the state of Florida. But I’m going in to hoop. I’m going in to play basketball.”
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Golden State Warriors forward Jimmy Butler III passes the ball during the first half of an NBA basketball game against the Portland Trail Blazers in San Francisco, Monday, March 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Nic Coury)
Deir al-Balah, Gaza (AP) — Hospitals in Gaza say Israeli strikes overnight and into Wednesday killed at least 45 people, including several women and a week-old infant.
The fresh strikes come as Israel’s war on Hamas shows no signs of relenting, despite a surge in international anger at Israel’s widening offensive.
Israel began allowing dozens of humanitarian trucks into Gaza on Tuesday, but the aid has not yet reached Palestinians in desperate need, according to aid groups. U.N. spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said Tuesday evening that although the aid has entered Gaza, aid workers were not able to bring it to distribution points where it is most needed, after the Israeli military forced them to reload the supplies onto separate trucks and workers ran out of time.
Internal notes circulated among aid groups Wednesday and seen by The Associated Press said that no humanitarian trucks had left Kerem Shalom, the border crossing in southern Gaza that is operated by Israel. The notes said 65 trucks moved from the Israel side of the crossing to the Palestinian side, but hadn’t made it into Gaza.
The Israeli defense body that oversees humanitarian aid to Gaza said trucks were entering into Gaza on Wednesday morning, but it was unclear if that aid was able to continue into Gaza for distribution. The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees said they waited several hours to collect aid from the border crossing in order to begin distribution but were unable to do so on Tuesday.
On Tuesday, the U.K. suspended free trade talks with Israel over its intensifying assault, a step that came a day after the U.K., Canada and France promised concrete steps to prompt Israel to halt the war. Separately, European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said the bloc was reviewing an EU pact governing trade ties with Israel over its conduct of the war in Gaza.
Israel says it is prepared to stop the war once all the hostages taken by Hamas return home and Hamas is defeated, or is exiled and disarmed. Hamas says it is prepared to release the hostages in exchange for a full Israeli withdrawal from the territory and an end to the war. It rejects demands for exile and disarmament.
Israel called back its senior negotiating team from ceasefire talks in the Qatari capital of Doha on Tuesday, saying it would leave lower-level officials in place instead.
Meanwhile, Israeli strikes continued to pound Gaza. In the southern city of Khan Younis, where Israel recently ordered new evacuations pending an expected expanded offensive, 24 people were killed, 14 of them from the same family. A week-old infant was killed in central Gaza.
The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the strikes but has said it is targeting Hamas infrastructure and accused Hamas militants of operating from civilian areas.
The war in Gaza began when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting 251 others. The militants are still holding 58 captives, around a third of whom are believed to be alive, after most of the rest were returned in ceasefire agreements or other deals.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive, which has destroyed large swaths of Gaza, has killed more than 53,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants in its count.
Magdy reported from Cairo and Lidman reported from Tel Aviv, Israel. Associated Press writers Sally Abou AlJoud contributed from Beirut and Sam Mednick contributed from Tel Aviv, Israel.
Palestinians inspect a house destroyed by an Israeli airstrikes in Deir al-Balah, Gaza, Wednesday, May 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinian carry the bodies of their relatives including children who were killed in an Israeli army airstrike in Deir al-Balah, Gaza, Wednesday, May 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinians inspect a house destroyed by an Israeli airstrikes in Deir al-Balah, Gaza, Wednesday, May 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
