Mentioned in trade rumors for the last couple of years, Jimmy Butler was finally traded by the Chicago Bulls to the Minnesota Timberwolves at the start of the 2017 NBA Draft. The move allowed Butler to reunite with his former Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau, and Minnesota now adds a bonafide All-Star to a young and talented Timberwolves core of Andrew Wiggins and Karl-Anthony Towns. For the Bulls, the deal signaled a move toward rebuilding and trying to set a solid plan for the future.
But while Butler is likely heading to a more promising future in Minnesota, the entirety of his career so far has been with the Bulls, which made the trade slightly bittersweet for the All-Star forward. Because of this, Butler posted a touching post on Instagram to Bulls fans as he thanked them for their support while he was in Chicago.
However, Butler was only able to process his feelings about the trade a day or so after it all went down. This was quite different from when the trade actually happened because on that day, Butler tried to steer clear of all of the swirling rumors by playing a competitive game of Spades with Carmelo Anthony, Dwyane Wade and Gabriel Union while on vacation in Paris.
.@JimmyButler (in Paris at the time) on how he learned of the draft-night trade that brought him to Minnesota. pic.twitter.com/VBl9Qh5CrI
— Alan Horton (@WolvesRadio) June 29, 2017
You have to love how Butler took the news that he got traded in stride and then continued to play Spades as if nothing major really happened. But hey, Spades requires some serious concentration, which clearly Butler had since he and Anthony were able to beat Wade and Union, a fact Butler clearly wants everyone to know about.
