PHILADELPHIA — The wardrobe choice for Jimmy Butler’s return to Philadelphia couldn’t have been a coincidence, with a hazel-colored sweatshirt with black lettering that read, “Nothing Ventured Nothing Gained.” Reward can’t come without risk but it’s hard to determine whether those words stood as a statement of what Butler had done by joining the Miami Heat without an accompanying, in-prime all-star or a message to his former team for letting him depart after coming oh-so close to the Eastern Conference finals, and possibly a title.
Why Butler is no longer a member of the 76ers remains a mystery that neither he, nor his former employer is willing to address. On or off the record. Inquiries have typically been met with silence, deflection, or abrupt refusal to engage. That has only left room for some dot-connection, reading between the lines, or abject confusion. There has been speculation that a max offer never came, that it was made but rescinded at the last…
