Pat Riley Opposes Jimmy Butler’s Celtics Trolling: ‘Keep Your Mouth Shut’

Miami Heat president Pat Riley intends to move forward after the organization suffered playoff elimination at the hands of the Boston Celtics, and the six-time NBA champion suggests Jimmy Butler does the same.

Boston handled business, putting away Miami in five games while only enduring a Game 2 loss, which fired up Butler's confidence. He trolled Celtics star Jaylen Brown on social media, predicted Boston would lose Game 3, and then claimed his injury absence prevented the Heat from advancing.

"I thought, 'Is that Jimmy trolling?' or 'Is that Jimmy serious?'" Riley said when addressing Miami's season on Monday, per team-provided video. "If you're not on the court, playing against Boston or on the court playing against the New York Knicks, you should keep your mouth shut and your criticism against those two teams."

Riley lived through the golden age of the iconic Celtics-Lakers rivalry, standing at the helm for Los Angeles for two NBA Finals wins over Boston. The now-79-year-old previously worked with legends Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Dwyane Wade throughout his head-coaching career. But now working from above in Miami's front office, Riley has been working to make deep playoff runs out of mediocre regular-season runs.

Last season, the Heat finished 44-38, good enough for No. 8 in the Eastern Conference. However, despite crawling into the playoffs, Miami defeated the Bucks, Knicks, and Celtics -- all stunningly -- to book a Finals appearance.

That magic and good fortune didn't work out this year. Without Butler, the Celtics took full advantage of attacking the Heat, holding their offense to less than 90 points in the final three games of the series. And unlike Butler, Riley has no issue giving Boston its well-deserved credit.

"They are, this year, I think, the best team in the league. The best roster in the league," Riley continued. "He made some great moves -- Brad Stevens did a great job in getting (Jrue) Holiday and (Kristaps) Porzingis. They built their bench a little bit differently."

While Boston will invest its attention to the Cavaliers in Round 2, Butler and Riley have an early head start to their offseason.