MIAMI — Sad. Selfish. Ugly. Avoidable. Plenty of words jockey for position to describe the Jimmy Butler/Miami Heat drama that has escalated as it sinks to a new low. There is not a solution in any of them.

The Butler era in Miami is ending in the midst of its its sixth season. It is ending with player and team as adversaries. And it is ending unfulfilled.

There is no solution easily at hand because the usual sports complications of money and ego are in play. Placing blame is dicey when both sides must own their share.

In play here is fragile, wounded pride as a player now 35 years old sees his prime running away from him but doesn’t know how to let it go.

In play here as well is Pat Riley, two months from turning 80, aware that his career clock beats loud too and that Butler is a fading star who has been good but not good enough to deliver an elusive fourth NBA championship to Miami.

It is time for the Butler era to end not because Jimmy wants it to but because the Heat need a reboot to jar themselves from what the franchise has become: Just pretty good. Second tier in a talent-crowded improved Eastern Conference led by champion Boston and a Cleveland team that’s a crazy 30-4.

Miami has Tyler Herro and Bam Adebayo and Butler (for now) at 35 and some nice complementary parts and a great coach and a legendary president and ‘Heat Culture.’ That’s a lot. But not enough.

That is why the Heat are doing what they must in navigating the end-game with Butler — and likely will find that difficult because the contract Riley gave Butler in 2019 has not aged well and turned onerous and tough to move as Jimmy too has aged.

No winners here.

“You go through this league with purity,” Adebayo said Saturday of the situation. “For us, it’s taking it one game at a time. It’s disappointing when you see the organization and a player going head to head like that. But the rest of us got to figure out how to win games.”

There is a chance Miami will find a buyer, a contending team that sees Butler as the missing piece, and that the Heat can strike a beneficial deal before the Feb. 6 trade deadline.

There is even a chance the two sides will soften their polar stances, that olive branches will be exchanged, and that Butler will stay in Miami at perhaps a reduced price with a reduced alpha-dog ego.

There is also a chance a trade won’t happen and that Butler will pout through the rest of this season, then opt-out and leave in free agency this summer with Miami getting nothing for him. He’d leave us with the halcyon images of Playoff Jimmy leading a pair of runs to the NBA Finals and one to the Eastern finals. But also with a tarnished memory on account of the way it ended.

It usually does end badly in sports, though. That’s the reality.

It ended for Dolphins great Dan Marino in a 62-7 playoff loss in Jacksonville. He’d never suit up for Miami again. He left the field to derisive catcalls.

With the Heat, greats like Alonzo Mourning, LeBron James, Chris Bosh and even Dwayne Wade all parted under less than ideal circumstances.

Now comes Butler, who evidently became perturbed Miami did not seem poised to offer him a max-contract extension, decided to go public with his private displeasure, tried to put pressure on Riley, and essentially quit on his team.

It is tough to beat Riley in a game of hardball. Tough to beat him in a staring contest or out-stubborn him.

So it looks like the Butler era will end with him leaving in a forced trade soon, or in free agency later. He leaves behind a mixed legacy, a mostly entertaining five-plus seasons, but a promise unfulfilled. He will leave fifth in all-time franchise win shares and top-10 in points scored and many other categories — but his departure will be cloaked in disappointment.

This should surprise no one, because change under fractured circumstances has marked Jimmy Butler’s career.

Leaving is what he does.

He left Chicago, left Minnesota, left Philadelphia, now Miami. Next?

Meantime the eventual raising of Butler’s No. 22 jersey into the Heat arena rafters is not an honor one might count on.

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