Heat’s Butler dishes on Comedy Central, and Richt talks state of Hurricanes program.
A six-pack of media notes on a Thursday night:
▪ Heat star Jimmy Butler touched on wine, kisses, his new daughter and a few other topics in a quick, breezy interview with Trevor Noah on “The Daily Show” on Comedy Central on Thursday.
Asked immediately by Noah about Wednesday’s heated exchanges with Pacers forward T.J. Warren during Miami’s win in Indiana, Butler said: “I didn’t start it though. We have to say that first. It wasn’t really a fight. It was more of an altercation.”
When Noah showed a photograph of Butler mockingly blowing a kiss at Warren after Warren was ejected for clapping his hands in Butler’s face, Butler cracked: “Altercations end in kisses all the time I’m sure.”
Asked if the blown kiss was a spontaneous decision, Butler said: “It was in the moment” before admitting “I have to say I thought about it.”
Pacers coach Nate McMillan said Butler should have been assessed a second technical foul, which would result in an ejection, after throwing kisses at Warren, but that the referees missed it.
Do the NBA and fans enjoy this type of thing?
“I think so,” Butler said. “Everyone likes something a little different here and there. I feel as though I’m that type of player. I don’t know if I’m the best player, but I’m not going to put up with too many things. Time and time again, disrespectful stuff happens.”
Butler revealed that he was conflicted about missing the Heat’s first three games because of the birth of his daughter, but coach Erik Spoelstra pushed him toward putting his child first.
“I really love basketball and I really love my family. What do I do?” he said of his mind-set on the opening day of the season. “I called coach Spo and he said, ‘We’ll see you in a couple days’” and to go to the hospital.
“He made it easy for me,” Butler said of his coach.
▪ ACC Network announcer and former UM football coach Mark Richt, appearing with WQAM’s Marc Hochman and Channing Crowder, touched on the challenges of coaching at Miami, including the difficulty filling the stadium.
“Miami is a tough job, maybe different from most places in America,” Richt said. “There are a lot of things that have to be managed that you don’t have to deal with at a school like Georgia and Florida.”
Despite the 6-7 season, Richt said: “I’ve got a lot of faith in Manny Diaz. He’s a very smart guy. It was his first time as a head coach, so there’s a learning curve there. I think Manny is going to get the ship right… Miami is not as far off as everybody would like to think.”
And Richt said of Miami’s athletic director: “I’m a huge Blake James fan. I’ve coached under a lot of ADs.... Vince Dooley and Blake were by far the top two.”
▪ Asked whether the UM football program should have a general manager — an idea that James and Diaz have rejected — Richt said: “If it’s not [Diaz’s] idea, I don’t believe in that.”
And on whether he would take Alabama quarterback Tua Tagovailoa with a top-five pick, Richt said: “I think you almost can’t afford not to take him. It’s a chance at a guy who can be a franchise quarterback for you. You can only expect with modern medicine he will come back and be healthy again.”
▪ ESPN dumped the Rockets-Timberwolves game in favor of Clippers at Heat on Friday, Jan. 24. This was the second January Heat game added by a national network, with TNT picking up the Heat-Celtics game on Jan. 28.
▪ NBC-6 dropped sportscaster Chris Fischer, who did good work, which leaves the market’s weakest sports station (and it isn’t close) with only one sportscaster, Keith Jones, who spends half of his time as a newscaster and never reports from any sports event.
▪ Quick stuff: The NFL scheduled the second game on the second Sunday of the playoffs in prime time for only the second time; the first time, in 2017, was caused by a weather incident in Kansas City. This makes sense, to air Seattle-Green Bay, at night (6:40 p.m. on Fox), but at a time that’s not too late for East Coast viewers…
CBS and Fox alternate which network gets two games on the second weekend of the playoffs, and CBS gets the pair of games this year. CBS opted for lead team Jim Nantz and Tony Romo to work the Houston-Kansas City game at 3 p.m. Sunday, with No. 2 team Ian Eagle and Dan Fouts working the Tennessee-Baltimore game in prime time Saturday night, after the Vikings-49ers game on NBC.
This story was originally published January 9, 2020 at 11:43 PM.
