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 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 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.

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.

NBA legend Scottie Pippen isn't impressed with Miami Heat forward Jimmy Butler or modern NBA superstars in the player empowerment era.

Butler's seven-game suspension by the Heat for conduct they deemed to be detrimental to the team is now over and he returned to the Heat lineup for the first time in two weeks, scoring 18 points in Miami's 133-113 loss to the Denver Nuggets.

Jimmy Butler is back. Officially. His seven-game suspension is over, and he was not listed on the injury report in advance of Friday's game between the Miami Heat and the Denver Nuggets. Less than two hours before tip-off,

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

Butler was indeed back, scoring 18 points in 33 minutes in a Heat loss to the Nuggets, where Denver was comfortably in charge most of the night. Nikola Jokic had a 24-point triple-double to lead Denver.

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.

The Miami Heat reached the season’s halfway point at 21-20, good enough for eighth place in the Eastern Conference. Amid all the Jimmy Butler drama and various