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

Jimmy Butler returned from his suspension Friday night in Michael Jordan-like fashion. No, not on the court, where the Miami Heat star had an unremarkable 18 points in a blowout loss to the Denver ...

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 ).

MIAMI — Jimmy Butler walked out of the 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 Bulls after coming out of retirement in March 1995.

Kevin Love is chronicling teammate Jimmy Butler and the trade drama with the Miami Heat with an impressive knowledge of pop culture on Instagram.

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.

There was no pretense of Butler being a vibrant part of the Heat for Friday’s game. He shot by himself in warmups. There was none of the choreographed palm-slapping with teammates that’s a typical part of any pregame. Kevin Love did run out to him just before the center-tap and shake hands. It looked like the first time they’d seen each other.

Jimmy Butler returned from his suspension Friday night in Michael Jordan-like fashion. No, not on the court, where the Miami Heat star had an unremarkable 18 points in a blowout loss to the Denver Nuggets.

The dude was um a man playing against boys damn near. I mean he was one of those guys…I didn’t fear anybody but when I played against him, I said ‘I