MIAMI – With the Miami Heat season ending on a frustrating sweep to the Cleveland Cavaliers, there’s no doubt that the year will be remembered for how Jimmy Butler exited the team. As Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra touched on the impact of the saga with Butler, so did stars Tyler Herro and Bam Adebayo after the conclusion of the season.

Before Butler was traded to the Golden State Warriors before the deadline, there were an immense number of events that led to several suspensions for the star. Reasons spanned from missing a team flight, walking out of shootaround after being told he wouldn’t start, and where it all kicked off when saying publicly that he lost “joy” playing basketball on the team.

Speaking during Wednesday’s exit interviews, Herro would be asked about his point of view on the experience, where he would talk about the “highs and lows” of the situation.

“It was highs and lows, trying to deal with different days, not really knowing what to expect. I think it was just the overall wondering when is it going to end,” Herro said. “That was kind of the main thing of when can we just focus on basketball? That’s what this profession is, it’s basketball. That’s what we’re here to do, and that’s what we all get paid to do is play basketball. At the end of the day, that’s what we wanted to worry about. As you can imagine, some days aren’t the best, some days better than others, just trying to worry about basketball and focus on that.”

Heat’s Bam Adebayo on the experience during the Jimmy Butler situation

Besides Herro, the Heat’s captain Bam Adebayo also had to steer the ship during a tumultuous time of uncertainty of whether Butler was playing or not. Plus, with the outside noise of the drama and how public and loud it became, Adebayo would reveal that getting “everybody on the same page” was the main goal.

“I would say trying to get everybody on the same page through the storm,” Adebayo said. “Because, like I’ve said many times sitting up here, you gotta understand that somebody still has to play the game. We still gotta go out there and figure out how to win. You know, if guys are in or out. And obviously keeping that same motivation of trying to win, like I said before, this organization and this team could have let go of the rope a long time ago, going through what we went through this season. So I would say it’s been an up-and-down road. And we’ve figured out how hard it is to win.”

Butler would make his return to Miami with Golden State on March 25, but Adebayo and Herro combined for 47 to beat their former teammate. There was no interaction between the three that night, as said by the two Heat stars and Butler himself.

Heat’s Bam Adebayo on Erik Spoelstra handling the Jimmy Butler drama

With the Heat looking to make big changes this offseason, the team is also trying to turn the page on the Butler chapter though it’s important to acknowledge the success the organization had during that time, Still, the relationship ended poorly with Adebayo and Herro having to lead the locker room along Spoelstra who the captain credited as honing in on silencing the outside noise.

“I feel like Spo tried to do his best to make the team focus on the main thing,” Adebayo said. “Obviously, there was a lot of noise going on around us. There were a lot of things happening, moving fast, not knowing who’s going to be in the lineup, if they were going to show up today or not. So he did a great job of just trying to make it the main thing, which was you got to get out here and compete.

“We can’t lose focus because the outside noise is doing what it’s supposed to do — be outside noise,” Adebayo continued. “I mean, we just have regular conversations. You come in there every day and you try your best to keep it positive because it can turn negative really quick if you let it.”

At any rate, Miami finished at 37-45, which put them 10th in the Eastern Conference as they head into the offseason motivated to improve.