NBA players — and front offices too, I’d bet — everywhere know that getting on Jimmy Butler’s bad side isn’t the best idea.
And on Wednesday night, Indiana Pacers forward T.J. Warren got on Butler’s bad side.
The resulted was a pair of incidents that eventually resulted in Warren being ejected. Then, Butler called out Warren in postgame interviews and then took to Instagram to literally circle the next time his Miami Heat would play the Pacers again.
Yep. You’re witnessing the birth of a new NBA rivalry.
Let’s start with the original incident: Butler didn’t like the way Warren fouled him in the third quarter of the game, and if you’re a lip-reader, you can see Butler had some NSFW language for Warren:
Then, Butler nailed Warren with a shoulder to the chest for a foul of his own … and Warren clapped right near his opponent, resulting in a second technical foul and an ejection. Butler blew him a kiss goodbye:
It didn’t end there. Butler claimed that Warren said some disrespectful stuff to him. He then called Warren “soft” and “trash”:
And then Butler posted this on Instagram:
“@t.warren1 don’t be mad you can’t guard me. we will see what you about in March.”
Hoo boy. His teammates backed him up, too:
So, uh, see you all in March.
