Jimmy Butler beefed himself off the Timberwolves with one scrimmage and one interview

Jimmy Butler beefed himself off the Timberwolves with one scrimmage and one interview

Jimmy Butler likes beefing his way out of a bad team situation bad for him anyways he’s done it multiple times throughout his career one particularly legendary Target of his beefing the entire Minnesota Timberwolves [Music] organization Jimmy’s foundation for beef began off rip at the start of his NBA career he was drafted by the Chicago Bulls in 2011 and joined head coach Tom Tibido on a quest to create a new era of Bulls basketball that was not synonymous with Michael Jordan Jimmy being drafted to a team led by Tibido was like discovering peanut butter and jelly are a good combo both Fierce competitors with a focus on defense first they took Chicago to the postseason four years in a row together but that success meant nothing to a Chicago front office known for alienating their coaches anyone who watched the last dance is familiar with their game the despite Tibido being the perfect compliment to their Rising Star he was unceremoniously fired the Bulls blamed a departure in culture but really it just felt like Tibido and the front office didn’t get along after that firing the team hired Fred hyberg to the skipper position hyberg and Tibido could not be more different in their coaching Styles hyberg was brought in to focus on building a better offense while Tibido had been there to build and maintain a top defense hoyberg was also brought in to connect with players and build a winning program with a Roser Tibido built up unfortunately for hyberg this left Butler in a tough spot he played well under Tibido and suddenly he was thrust into a new system with a new coach that well didn’t fit his learning style let’s call it one of the first signs of Butler’s misalignment with hyberg came after a loss to the New York Knicks in 2015 Butler was quoted as saying he believed they probably have to be coached a lot harder at times adding that Fred is a laid-back guy and I respect him for that but when guys aren’t doing what they’re supposed to do you got to get on guys myself included another sign Butler and another veteran Left Behind after tibo’s firing you might know him Dwayne Wade called out the team after a loss to the Atlanta Hawks in 2017 anyways the beef with Chicago came to aead with a trade Chicago wanted players to come in who fit Hoy Berg’s Vision on offense but they conceded the team’s grit and identity by trading Jimmy away not exactly a beloved move at the time Butler who at that point was considered one of the best two-way players in the league was given up on by the city he thought he’d play for forever more importantly for our beef though Butler’s former coach and now coach SL president of basketball operations for the Wolves Tibido is who traded for him so Butler went back to a coach he loves and Tibido got his favorite player back right well well Butler was also the veteran presence brought into to play alongside and teach Carl Anthony towns and Andrew Wiggins cat who was hailed as the quintessential modern NBA big entering the draft and Wiggins who was getting comparisons to greats like Tracy McGrady before his draft looked to be Butler’s next best chances at reaching the postseason it just meant Butler would have to be a teacher with the acquisition of Butler and with two young stars to compliment him a beautiful ition Arc seemed to be in the works for the two former Bulls neither really accounted for the impact new characters in their respective arcs Wiggins cat and general manager Scott leaden would have see at this point cat and Wiggins were extremely unproven they were Young Guns and had a lot of potential very high ceilings etc etc but they were struggling to get wins and hold leads pre Butler and neither had really shown the ability to really grab the bull by the horns this was on full display during a November 2017 regular season game where despite starting the game off strong against the 11-9 Washington Wizards neither cat or Wigan seemed committed to getting stops so playing defense you know the very thing that makes Butler and Tibido tick there were several moments in the fourth quarter of the loss that were just clear indicators of how young and inexperienced the Wolves Duo of cat and Wiggins were a turnover by cat that could have been prevented had he just been paying attention to the players around him a double team from cat and Wiggins That Couldn’t contain auto Porter Jr in the paint and a late close out from cat all compounded into a very bad vibes loss Jimmy was brought in to inject a defensive identity and help teach the younger wolves how to close games something that very clearly didn’t happen in that loss and don’t get me wrong he did bring that sort of identity to Minnesota they managed to get to the postseason for the first time since 2004 and that was largely due to tibo’s coaching and Butler’s All-Star caliber play but games like the Wizards loss stuck with the team and with Butler his comments after that game were proof of that Butler implied to reporters after that game that he wanted his Wolf’s teammates to start accepting tough love if they wanted to succeed with him but again they made the postseason objectively the Butler experiment was at least at first a success the Wolves were eliminated in the first round by the Houston Rockets but still they clearly had a good foundation to work with then it was time to resign Butler Ander our third disruptive character to this beef Laden Butler reportedly did not like the number given by the Wolves Minnesota offered him a 4-year 100 million doll contract extension but he was looking for either more money on that 4-year deal or more years in Minnesota in short he felt low balled and undervalued by the team and Laden in addition to the math not mathing Butler struggled with how differently his fresh-faced teammates were built another sign things were ay Butler didn’t even fly back with his teammates after being eliminated by the Rockets he flew instead to Los Angeles for some RNR and he did not go through end of season physicals Butler was all fed up with what he felt like were his teammates’ nonchalant attitudes that same report mentioned his fed upness also mentioned that Butler was leaning towards not signing the extension offered by Minnesota regardless of them finding the space to pay him more Andrew wigin his brother added some spice to the extension rumors looking pretty excited about potentially not having Butler on the team anymore Butler subbed him back because of course he did this is Jimmy Butler he’s not going to let you win a game of trying to be funny for clicks that’s his Gambit Hallelujah keep that same energy Let the church say Amen so at this point we’ve got teammates not getting along a contract extension not getting signed and a new season imminent and trading Camp is starting and according to Taj Gibson a previous teammate with Butler back in Chicago and teammate again in Minnesota he was starting to get nervous about Butler even showing up the training camp let alone participating in October 2018 wo reported on a very heated wolves practice saying Butler yelled at Minnesota’s front office during a scrimmage and said you [ __ ] need me you can’t win without me W by the way was clearly very excited about this drama a true reality television lover like myself Jeff Teague who was on The Wolves at the time and has become a premier source of all things NBA history went into the most detail we’ve gotten yet on this incident on his podcast Club 520 Paints the picture of attention so thick in Minnesota’s training facility you could cut it with a knife so we were at practice one day he comes 3 days at the training camp start we all think Jimmy about to practice like Jimmy ain’t practicing teag says that basically everyone on the team is trying hard in his practice diving for loose balls actually practicing meanwhile Butler is just getting stretched out and massaged on the side until tib said we’re going to scrimmage Jimmy hop up I’m playing tibs apparently named St for this scrimmage and includes Butler which he shuts down immediately he didn’t want to play with the starters according to Teague but preferred playing with the third stringers or as C called them he picked the Bad News Bears no offense but everybody in there they wouldn’t going to make the team so ball goes up game starts and of course Jimmy having something to prove he goes and defends cat immediately that leads to a quick steal and the gym is going nuts they jumped the ball we throw it the Cat first play Jimmy still it Butler is relentless on Cat in this very meaningless scrimmage and he lets leaden and everyone else in the room no he’s him jammie start talking to the gym everybody in the gym y’all better mother F and pay me I’m like that I’m like he is nuts it feels like based on the way Teague is retelling this story this game went on for hours that’s how intense it was in reality they only played till Butler’s ragtag team scored 18 and allowed just six points to the starters Man Jimmy going crazy y’all think that team can win without me I’m him pay me pay me Butler won’t stop chirping at the execs in the room throughout this entire thing Teague says he and the other starters wanted to replay Butler but when they went looking for him he said Jimmy was long gone he like I just beat him with the G leers this is your starters according to teag he ran right out of the gym very fast ran right to Rachel Nichols it seems nichols’s interview is I think the funniest part of this beef you just demoralized or at least tried to demoralize your team in front of top brass because you want to get paid the team caught a stray in the form of total dominance on the court and then had to relive said stray on National Television the same day why are they in it anyway back to the interview Butler told Nichols that his uh passionate where it’s the front office and teammates came from a place of not having played basketball in so long due to injury so of course he had to come in gun to Blazing Butler doubled down on the scrimmage just being a passionate response to management telling him he had to practice and having nothing to do with any players specifically in another interview with JJ reck one month after being traded off the Wolves so now you didn’t lit the match but ain’t nothing on fire yet you just lit the match the Wolves cancel practice that was scheduled for the next day after the scrimmage but the Flames were fanned the match Butler mentioned being lit in that practice was fully blazing finally in November 2018 one year after the Wizards loss that opened the floodgates for Butler’s distaste for the team and one month after the scrimmage he was traded to the Philadelphia 76ers cat and Wiggins got to stay with their team and Butler got to go and contend and this beef sort of faded away min soda of course retooled around cat choosing him over Butler and Wiggins and adding a complimentary piece or two Butler was able to contend with the Sixers but even that ended in a beefy way Daryl Mory decided to throw a bag at someone who let’s just say Butler had a pretty bad reaction to who got a bag from Philly and he let them know how he felt about it after he beat them in the postseason the following year tobi’s haris over me Butler then ended up with the Miami Heat and he thrived with them Miami the so-called toughest meanest most conditioned nastiest and owner of ugliest Court decal on Earth team went to the finals twice with him cat was complimentary of Butler’s time in Minnesota while Butler hasn’t spoken about them at all since the Nickels interview seems like all is well for Butler oh man is that Pat ry’s music just kidding seems like Butler literally cannot get enough of getting caught beef handed by what ever team he’s leading that’s just raw [Music] Jimmy thanks for watching this is the first time you’re hearing my voice on this channel so allow me to introduce myself my name is cace Pedraza and I’ll be around for the next few months helping deliver some beefs some rewinds and some other dope stuff to the channel don’t forget to like And subscribe to hear more of all the above [Music]

11:41 – correction, it was Elton Brand and not Daryl Morey who didn’t resign Butler. Thanks for flagging in the comments.

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Jimmy Butler likes beefing his way out of a bad team situation – bad for him, anyways. One legendary target of his beefing was the entire Minnesota Timberwolves organization.

Butler is a force on the court, and a force as a person with a big ego and bigger expectations. That meshed well with Tom Thibodeau, but didn’t mesh well with his fresh faced teammates, Karl-Anthony Towns and Andrew Wiggins.

So, he did what any rational person would do – picked a fight with them and Minnesota’s entire front office during a scrimmage heard round’ the world (and by Rachel Nichols like an hour after it happened).

Written and produced by Candace Pedraza (https://x.com/candace_pedraza)
Directed and edited by Jiazhen Zhang

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