“I want to see me get my joy back from playing basketball. Wherever that may be, we’ll find out here pretty soon.” Jimmy Butler shocked everyone when he publicly expressed dissatisfaction with his situation in Miami and demanded a trade. And the Heat retaliated by suspending him for seven games. Problem solved, right? Not even close. With Jimmy out of the lineup, Pat Riley’s squad has lost the last two games, their latest one coming last night against the Kings in double overtime. And it has led to Heat Nation pointing fingers at Erik Spoelstra.

Well, the Heat held a comfortable seventeen-point lead early in the fourth quarter, and it looked like they would get an easy win. But the Kings made a miraculous comeback to force OT, not once but twice, and Spoelstra could do nothing to stop it. Sure enough, his team eventually lost by five points. Disappointed by the heartbreaking loss, coach Spo said postgame, “I feel for the locker room. We really poured everything into this game. We did enough to put ourselves in a position to win you know and I can’t even explain.”

Moreover, he was hopeful about a potential turnaround, “But we’re gonna continue to work you know and find a breakthrough. There will be a breakthrough. We’re going to learn from these tough games.”

Unfortunately, Erik’s comments only enraged the NBA World as comments like “I am sick of Spo’s stupid little Coach Carter speeches, y’all been trying to break through for years… it won’t happen under Spo and Riley.” And “Spo is deada– a horrendous offensive coach” began flooding in.

It’s clear that Heat Nation is not happy with the team’s decline to the ninth spot in the East standings. More so because it might now be harder to trade Butler because of how drastically the situation has escalated. As per veteran insider Tim Bontemps, “I don’t think the way he’s handled this has helped his chances of being traded… In the current environment, where it’s hard for teams to make trade, it’s hard for teams to get to a $50 million number in a trade, Jimmy Butler is not making it seem like this is a great thing to go try to do. He’s not playing out of his mind on the court. He’s causing problems for the Heat… The bottom line is he’s now in a fight with Pat Riley and Erik Spoelstra.”

Moreover, the team that is interested in acquiring Butler, the Suns, might not have the financials to pull off the trade. Especially if Bradley Beal does not waive his no-trade clause. “There’s not anybody else that’s stepping up with offers. If the Miami Heat were getting incoming quality offers for Jimmy Butler, he wouldn’t be on the team.” Bontemps added. Maybe that’s the reason the fans’ focus has now shifted to Spoelstra’ shortcomings.

Heat Nation disregards Erik Spoelstra’s “Best Coach” tag and questions his $120 million contract

Of course, fans continued to criticize Spoelstra after last night’s loss as one netizen wrote, “Spo has the ‘best coach in the NBA’ title off of pure aura he’s been so mediocre for like 3 years now.” Well, he has been the team’s head coach since 2008 and led them to two championships, earning everyone’s respect. However, the Heat has not had much success recently as they got knocked out of the first round last year. And that has caused fans to question Spo’s credibility.

Meanwhile, some netizens also raised eyebrows at his massive contract with comments like “This is some of the worst coaching I have ever seen, and y’all wanna crown this mofo! It’s very hard to win game when your coach is this bad! Your mad about Jimmy’s money I’m mad they gave Spo all that money!” and “Spo needs to be held accountable for all these losses. I’ve never seen any NBA coach so fascinated with small ball as he is. Been trash since that new contract. When will you guys ever question the alleged ‘best coach’ of the NBA? Seriously!”

Yes, it was just last year that Erik inked a historic eight-year $120 million extension, solidifying his future in Miami. But now, the Heat Nation wants results, and Spo has failed to deliver so far. Hopefully, he will find a breakthrough soon like he said last night as the Heat continue to look for offers to part ways with Butler.