Jimmy Butler, Pat Riley and an NBA feud with the Miami Heat - ESPN

IF THERE HADN'T been a massive falling out with superstar forward Jimmy Butler the week before, every question Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra took on the morning of Jan. 9 would've seemed perfectly appropriate.

The team's win in Golden State the night before. Tyler Herro's All-Star bid. Jaime Jaquez Jr.'s growth as a second-year player. All standard fare for a post-practice interview for a middle-of-the-pack team in the middle of a West Coast road trip in early January.

But, of course, nothing about this Thursday morning availability in Salt Lake City was typical. Just six days earlier, the Heat had announced they were suspending Butler for conduct detrimental to the team after a 13-point loss to the Indiana Pacers in which questions about their six-time All-Star's effort emerged.

It had been messy, a league- and franchise-altering blow-up, one that could cost Butler $2.3 million in salary and presents the biggest existential test to the vaunted «Heat Culture» in decades.

Back in Utah, no questions about Butler were asked because the Heat had made it clear Spoelstra wouldn't answer them. The point of timing the seven-game suspension with the six-game road trip, team sources said, was to create space for the team to get out of Miami and away from the chaos the situation had created, while Butler, Heat president Pat Riley and Heat owner Micky Arison met to talk through their differences.

It was a futile effort. Starving this situation of oxygen was going to work for only so long, and the issues that caused the relationship to disintegrate remain. Butler still wants to be traded. The Heat haven't found a trade they like for him.

Teammates, coaches and staffers have already grown weary, sources said.

While Heat sources say