It looks like more fingers are pointing at Pat Riley every day. After Paul Pierce blamed the Miami Heat coach-turned-prez for ruining Heat Culture, Charles Barkley is targeting him next. The entire Jimmy Butler saga turned into a heated debate on Inside the NBA tonight. While Chuckster didn’t specifically pick a side – he dragged both Butler and Riley, in fact – he went real low when he touched a nerve in Riley’s history.

One that Riley probably wished had gone differently.

It went down after the Miami Heat, with a suspended Jimmy Butler no less, won 98-114 against the Warriors. Instead of the game, the Inside Guys debated (or argued the semantics) in the Butler trade drama. Kenny “The Jet” Smith pointed out, “Pat Riley has been through it before as well.” 

Kenny tried to convey that this drama has happened in the NBA many times before. With that impeccable timing to make an insert (like the viral Jay-Z moment last month), Barkley said, “He let Dwyane Wade go.”

It was a sensitive subject in South Florida when the franchise’s representative star went to Chicago in 2016. Dwyane Wade would come back, retire here, get his own statue and a street in Wade County. But it became a black mark in Pat Riley’s tenure as the president of the Miami Heat organization when he drove away D-Wade.

Ahead of Wade’s Hall of Fame induction in 2023, Riley opened up about his star player’s departure from the franchise for the first time. “I was sad to see him go, I was upset that he went,” Riley said. “I knew we could work something out, but we didn’t. We did not work it out the way that he wanted it to be worked out and that’s our fault.”

Pierce, Barkley, and more than a few see it going the same way with Jimmy Butler. Like Wade, Butler has high expectations and the Heat is undervaluing those same expectations. Regardless of Charles Barkley disagreeing with both Riley’s and Butler’s methods, he is blaming Riley for mishandling Wade’s situation in 2016.

Charles Barkley’s assessment of the Miami Heat situation

Charles Barkley was pretty blunt about the Heat dilemma. Unlike Shaq and Kenny, he sees it as joy = money with Butler’s statement that started it all. But he also says that a player like Jimmy Butler doesn’t need to hide behind words like “joy” and should demand his worth.

Dwyane Wade didn’t necessarily sugarcoat it. Just last year, he said on Udonis Haslem’s podcast, “I don’t care, give me the ‘ride off in the sunset’ contract,” Wade continued. “I deserve it motherf*****. That’s how I was feeling. I don’t care whatever y’all want to say about my production. I deserve it. So yes, I want it and I didn’t get it and so I left.”

Wade was initially offered $20 million, which was later bumped to $40 million. Yet it was not enough for the franchise’s star who said he didn’t feel he was respected for all the years he put into the team. Although Wade returned, he remained bitter about the 2016 situation. Fans now feel that Butler’s resentment for Riley will worsen similarly with that 7-game suspension.

When Shaquille O’Neal (he’s been dragged into this mess by people who say Riley drove him away too) said Butler won’t leave unless another team offers more than $55 million, Barkley said that Butler needs a contract extension more.

It’s worth noting Dwyane Wade himself has kept quiet on this situation, though his 2016 exit is a huge talking point right now. If Chuck sees history repeat itself in Miami, he won’t be surprised.