As far as modern basketball moments go, Jimmy Butler’s final practice with the Minnesota Timberwolves, in which he reportedly went scorched Earth on everyone from Karl-Anthony Towns to ‘Wolves ownership, has become the stuff of legends. Butler, who was in the midst of what felt like a deadlock with the Wolves’ front office over his attempt to force a trade, joined the ‘Wolves third team and reportedly took down the starters, all while yelling “you f*cking need me!” at ownership and the front office, who were in attendance.
By all accounts, the reports coming out of that practice made it sound like Butler went for about 50 points, dunked on Towns’ head, slapped Andrew Wiggins and danced his way back to the locker room. But on a appearance on new teammate J.J. Reddick’s podcast, Butler said that wasn’t the case.
Butler explained he didn’t like that he was told he was going to practice by the front office, which led him to be defiant in playing with the third stringers. However, it wasn’t as though Butler was hoisting and dominating by being a scorer.
In fact, Butler said he barely even shot the rock.
Butler: Competing. If you love to compete, you would’ve thrived in the environment. Seriously. Everybody wanted to beat me to show. The crazy part is the most interesting detail wasn’t told.
The most interesting detail of that whole scrimmage that nobody knows: I only shot the ball once.
Redick: Really?
Butler: I only shot the ball one time. I only shot the ball once.
Redick: But every quote coming out of there was like: “Jimmy was getting buckets. He was dominating.”
Butler: Oh, I was dominating, but I only shot the ball once. Dimes, boom, boom, boom. Steals, blocks. I only shot the ball one time.
So Butler shook the Timberwolves organization to its core while taking just a single shot? That’s truly legendary.
