The good news for the Minnesota Timberwolves is that Jimmy Butler practiced with the team on Wednesday amid his ongoing trade saga. The bad news is that it sounds like things could not have gone much worse while Butler was there, as Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN reported that Butler caused quite the scene.
All-Star Jimmy Butler participated in Minnesota's practice, a session that included him verbally challenging teammates, coaches and front office, league sources told ESPN. Butler was vociferous and emotional at times, targeting Thibodeau/Layden/Towns/Wiggins. Story soon on ESPN.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) October 10, 2018
Now, things have to get real weird for Woj to drop “vociferous and angry” on us, and in a follow-up tweet, we learned just how contentious practice was while Butler was around.
At one point in a scrimmage, sources said, Butler turned to GM Scott Layden and screamed, "You (bleeping) need me. You can't win without me." Butler left teammates and coaches largely speechless. He dominated the gym in every way. Jimmy's back.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) October 10, 2018
Normally you want your star to dominate the gym in every way, but this is about as close to that being a bad thing as you’ll ever see. As for how bad things went, well…
I spoke with a Wolves staffer who said about today's practice: "It was bad. Guys come in angry, having bad days all the time. This was as bad as I've ever seen a practice in my years in the NBA."
— Keith Smith (@KeithSmithNBA) October 10, 2018
Not great! The good news is that in the year 2018, news happening causes people to log onto Twitter and get jokes off, which was the case in response to Butler going off on seemingly every notable person in the gym on Wednesday.
me rn pic.twitter.com/nw3xsAntsP
— James Herbert (@outsidethenba) October 10, 2018
This practice sounds like the scene in “Half Baked” when Scarface quits his job. https://t.co/3OFiny3mob
— Dan Woike (@DanWoikeSports) October 10, 2018
https://twitter.com/GeraldBourguet/status/1050103763740966912
https://twitter.com/martinrickman/status/1050103796016136192
at one point jimmy butler turned and screamed, “man it’s a (bleeping) HOT one, like seven inches from the midday sun.” teammates and coaches were left speechless. he dominated in every way, jimmy's back
— Erik Malinowski (@erikmal) October 10, 2018
It turns out that when you're good friends with Mark Wahlberg you sometimes turn your workplace into Entourage https://t.co/VQTOF6Zavd
— Bruce Arthur (@bruce_arthur) October 10, 2018
https://twitter.com/Sam_Vecenie/status/1050101315550949376
[whispering to date while watching Wolves practice when Jimmy first begins emotionally and vociferously berating coaches, executives and teammates]
That's Jimmy, he’s back https://t.co/ShJMZtmmCM
— Dan Devine (@YourManDevine) October 10, 2018
I can't believe I'm going to say this, but @wojespn's "He dominated the gym in every way. Jimmy's back" is better than any of his NBA Draft Night euphemisms. I'm still laughing.
— J.E. Skeets (@jeskeets) October 10, 2018
At one point in a scrimmage, sources said, Pitbull turned to GM Scott Layden and screamed, "I know you want me. You know I wantcha.” Calle Ocho is back.
— Taco Trey Kerby (@treykerby) October 10, 2018
At one point in a scrimmage, sources said butler turned to GM Scott Layden and screamed, 'Your lipstick, his collar, don't bother angel, I know exactly what goes on.' Butler left teammates and coaches largely speechless.
— Blake Murphy (@BlakeMurphyODC) October 10, 2018
Jimmy Butler walks into Thibs' office: pic.twitter.com/UbSfTwsFLE
— Robby Kalland (@RKalland) October 10, 2018
This isn’t the first time that a player was openly disgruntled with how trade talks were going down. For example, here’s how Vince Carter responded to this situation when he was in Toronto.
everyone approaches their trade request differently i mean vince carter started telling the other team what plays the raptors were gonna run
— alex (@steven_lebron) October 10, 2018
The funniest aspect of this all, though, might have been something that had nothing to do with Butler. Prior to the news of him straight-up practicing hitting Twitter, Anthony Tolliver gave a quote that is rather hilarious in retrospect.
https://twitter.com/Sam_Vecenie/status/1050104216503504896
This seems like the type of event that should be a turning point in Minnesota’s relationship with Butler, because if this is all true, it’s kind of hard to justify keeping him around, even if Tom Thibodeau probably loves seeing this type of fight out of the All-NBA guard. You can be sure that if the two sides do indeed end up parting ways, we’ll look back on this day (and the myriad of jokes people on Twitter rifled off) as a major tipping point.
