Jimmy Butler has officially made his return to the Miami Heat, stepping back into the starting lineup for Friday's game against the Denver Nuggets at the Kaseya Center. This marks

In big-time sports, all sorts of sins can be overlooked in the name of talent. Assault and battery? Domestic abuse? Weapons charges? If you can run fast enough or jump high enough, those are issues a forgiving franchise can massage into minor infractions. What about the crime of being a serial pain in the ass? It depends.

The Heat are planning to suspend Jimmy Butler — again. This time it will be for two games after he missed a team flight on Wednesday, ESPN’s Shams Charania reported. According to the report, Butler initially had intentions of joining the Heat later on Wednesday as they get ready for their game in Milwaukee on Thursday.

Miami Heat forward Jimmy Butler took a page out of NBA legend Michael Jordan's book to announce his return to the lineup versus the Denver Nuggets on Friday.

MIAMI — Jimmy Butler walked out of the Miami Heat locker room on Friday night wearing a Michael Jordan jersey. It wasn’t a No. 23 jersey. It was a No. 45 — the one Jordan briefly wore when he returned to the Chicago Bulls after coming out of retirement in March 1995.

In his current standoff with the Heat front office ( read: Pat Riley ), Miami attempted to avoid the “burn everything down” portion by suspending Butler seven games for conduct detrimental to the team ( read: attempting to force a trade ).

Butler missed Miami’s last seven games while serving a suspension for conduct that the team deemed detrimental.

Despite saying his calf is no longer an issue, Nuggets forward Aaron Gordon continued to come off the bench for Monday's game in Chicago.

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As a Hall of Fame player, Shaquille O’Neal followed the get-me-out-of-town strategy himself. Now he condones quitting on a team to do so.