Exits: Look where it wasn't

Comedian and writer Josh Gondelman on the disappearing act of Jimmy Butler from Miami, and the Heat from collective memory of this NBA season.

In 1994, NBC broadcast the first installment in its series of primetime specials called The World’s Greatest Magic. Magic was astonishingly mainstream in the 90s. They would just throw an hour of it on television, and there was no way for all of us at home to Google “how to saw woman in half (not dead)?” and learn how the illusion was performed. On this inaugural World’s Greatest Magic special, a magician (David Copperfield, if memory serves) made a space shuttle disappear. It was an audacious gambit, one worthy of an 8pm time slot.

But here’s the thing: Obviously he didn’t do that. A magician created the appearance of a shuttle disappearing, which is impossible. The shuttle was, of course, there all along. We were just convinced to look where it wasn’t.

Similarly, it’s tricky to write an Exit for the 2024-2025 Miami Heat, because in many respects it seemed like they were never really here. They are certainly gone now, a reality I’d be remiss as a spiteful Celtics partisan and longtime Heat Culture skeptic to ignore. But I’m not (primarily) writing as a hater. I am merely observing. And even under careful scrutiny it’s hard to prove that the 2024-2025 Heat existed at all.

Seriously, like… what was this team? And I don’t mean that in the sense of the squad “having an identity” in the stylistic or schematic sense. On a more elemental level, what people comprised this iteration of the Heat. Was Jimmy Butler on the roster? Technically yes. Despite his visible discontent after the team refused to offer him a contract extension, Butler remained a Heat (Heater?) for the majority of the season even though he played more games in a Golden State Warriors jersey during this campaign, a fact that feels both obvious and impossible.

The battle of wills between Jimmy Butler and Pat Riley prevented the team from entering a period of rebuilding. This season was more about pre-building, which is to say, demolition. For half the year, commentators speculated on how bad the rift between the team’s star player and president really was. Could it be salvaged, or was it time to move on? It felt like waiting to hear whether your car was fixable or destined to be totaled.