Top 100 moments of the 2018-19 NBA season, Part 2
18. The Jimmy Butler trade fiasco
How blatantly upfront Jimmy Butler was about his desire to be traded is a mystery, but more than likely, he made his feelings clear about wanting to be dealt long before his official trade request in mid-September. Tom Thibodeau is notoriously stubborn and his love for Jimmy Buckets runs deep, so it’s pretty fair to assume that was the issue, rather than the Minnesota Timberwolves being unable to find an adequate deal.
Whatever the case was, the Wolves didn’t trade Butler like they should’ve before the season started, and it only made his return to the court for his first practice all the more glorious.
After sitting out the preseason, Butler showed up to his first Timberwolves practice an hour late. He verbally bashed teammates Karl-Anthony Towns and Andrew Wiggins. He yelled, “You [BLEEP]ing need me!” to the sidelines at Thibs and general manager Scott Layden. He subbed himself in with third-stringers Luol Deng, James Nunnally and two-way contract Jared Terrell, and then proceeded to beat the starters with that group.
It was a “tour de force,” as ESPN‘s Adrian Wojnarowski infamously called it. He simultaneously told the world what he thought of the franchise’s cornerstones, his game, the situation and his desire to be traded…and yet, somehow, did it in a way that only made Thibodeau love him and obstinately cling to him even more.
You have to feel for Timberwolves fans, because the dysfunction at work here made even the Phoenix Suns and New York Knicks look like competent organizations. The fans didn’t deserve such a comically broken situation, nor did their team deserve to deal with that kind of locker room poison.
From a broader perspective, however, this was the most entertaining off-court fiasco the league had seen in years. Every new detail that emerged was better and juicier than the last. And even if he had orchestrated the whole ESPN interview with Rachel Nichols (which he didn’t), that would’ve made it even more impressive.
It’s one thing to premeditate a power move like that to embarrass an entire organization, but it’s quite another to go out there, after weeks of not practicing at full speed with NBA teammates, and still put them all to shame with a practice that practically aroused the Timberwolves coaching staff. In one week’s time, this hilariously unbelievable story had become a tall tale. His reasons for wanting out in the first place may have been B.S., but love him or hate him, no one could deny Jimmy Butler was a basketball beast for this one.