Butler s starting story against the Timberwolves in training match

Recently, Butler was in a low mood. The Golden State Warriors he led were eliminated by the Minnesota Timberwolves. Just like Zhao Benshan's sketch "New Year's greetings" line said: "Since his eldest nephew has become a three fat man, don't give him another blow. People at this time need understanding and comfort." But Timberwolves fans don't care. They shouted at Butler on the fire at home: "We don't need you at all!" This is exactly what Butler said after defeating Towns and Wiggins and other main players in the Timberwolves' training game in the 2017-18 season: "You need me too much." Today we will turn on the time machine to take you to relive this wonderful story.

History is not a mono solo. The historical truth needs to be restored in multiple aspects, including the incident of Butler's training match, and I will review it from multiple angles and aspects. The person involved includes Butler. The ESPN female reporter Rachel Nichols who interviewed Butler as soon as possible, ESPN columnist Wernerovsky, the first reporter who reported the incident, Redick, then 76ers player, and Jeff Teague, then Butler's teammate, and others, striving to restore the most complete and clear truth.

First, we will turn the time back to June 2017. The then Timberwolves head coach Thibodeau used Zach Laven, Chris Dunn, Markanen to complete the deal with the Chicago Bulls, recruiting his confidant Butler to the team. Butler, who was highly anticipated, has lived up to the expectations. He brought tenacity and spirit to win. The team regained the playoffs after 13 years, but behind a successful season, undercurrents actually surging, and all contradictions broke out in the offseason.

First of all, there is a conflict in salary. At that time, the Timberwolves had completed the maximum salary renewal with Wiggins, and then faced the issue of Towns renewal. As the cornerstone of the team, he must be the maximum salary renewal. The contradiction is that Butler also wants to renew the maximum salary. Then, Butler's personality and Towns both did not call. The Timberwolves player at the time said in an interview program that Butler and Towns dislike each other, but did not explain the detailed reason. To put it bluntly, there was a salary issue. Butler thinks he is the most important thing for this team. Towns and Wiggins are not worthy. It is difficult for a team to give three players a maximum salary at the same time. It happened that Butler suffered meniscus surgery in February 2018, and the Timberwolves management wanted to reduce Butler's contract. As a result, the two sides had serious differences in communication and there was no progress in renewal.

Butler later emphasized this in an interview program with Redick after joining the Philadelphia 76ers. He said that he had been negotiating contract issues with Thibodeau and Timberwolves management throughout the summer of 2018, but finally reached a deadlock due to serious differences. Timberwolves management had to consider trading Butler. So before the start of the new season, Butler did not return to the team on time. He missed the preseason and trained alone at the Plymouth Arena. At the end of September, he submitted a transaction application to the Timberwolves, but the transaction took time. During this period, Thibodeau kept calling Butler to ask him to return to the team to train first. Butler's reason was that the team had to trade itself anyway, so it would be meaningless to train. ”

The then Timberwolves player Jeff Teague recalled in an interview program that as Butler’s friend, he was like a middle mediator, and the team manager asked him to call Butler to train, but Butler answered the phone and heard the purpose of the visit and said directly: “Tell that bastard to pay me.” ”

But in the end, with the efforts of many parties, that is, on October 10, Butler finally returned to the team. He met with the team's management and Thibodeau. The two sides did not discuss the contract issue that day. At this time, one of the team's management (Butler did not name) asked Butler to train in an orderly tone, which made Butler feel rebellious. He told Thibodeau that he could only do some shooting training and simple Stretching, then everyone went to the training ground together. In May 2023, Jeff Teager, the then Timberwolves player, restored the entire process of the training ground while participating in the program.

At the beginning, everyone was training, but Butler stretched on the side, and then Thibodeau arranged a group match. He arranged for the main starters of Teager, Butler, Wiggins, Gibson and Towns to form a team, but Butler refused. Asked to be on the same team as the league players, because it was in the preseason stage and there were many Development League players in the team training with the team. Teague's original words were that these players were destined to stay in the team in the new season. Thibodeau agreed and transferred Ross to the starter.

Then Butler started the training game with four unknown Development League players and the main players of the Timberwolves. The game was full of gunpowder at the beginning. Butler took the initiative to defend Towns and in In the first round, he completed a steal counterattack score from Towns.

Timberwolves players cheered downtown and asked him to cheer him up and beat the opponent. Butler directly hit back: "Get out, he's just an LJ." Towns was not convinced and prepared to hit Butler, but was intercepted by Butler again to assist his teammates in counterattack score. After this ball Butler shouted to the team manager Scott Lyden, who was watching the game on the sidelines: "You guys are the best to pay me, I am the most worthwhile person. "Everyone was shocked and funny to see Butler's behavior.

Tiger and Ross kept passing the ball to him in order to help Towns. When Towns scored the ball against Butler's defense, they also started to respond with trash words and made demonstration gestures that you were too short. After this ball Butler was more serious. He led the team to a 10-0 climax. Although he didn't score a single point, he used steals and assists to help his teammates score continuously. Soon they won the game 18-6.

When the win, Butler was completely crazy. He took off his coat, but the Timberwolves logo on the jersey inside was cut off. He was very funny wearing a jersey with a hole. He continued to yell at the management team on the court: "Do you think they can play without me? You need me too much, I am the most valuable person, pay me!"

Tiger, as a friend, wanted to persuade him, but Butler said: "I just led the development." The league teammates defeated you, is this the starter?"

Tiger couldn't hold back his face. He asked for a rematch, but Thibodeau refused to worry about something. Then Butler led his teammates to play a game with the second team to continue winning. The starting players on the sidelines were not convinced and strongly demanded a rematch, but Butler returned to the locker room without looking back. The training continued, but the five starters became more and more aggrieved. They went to the locker room to challenge Butler, and he was already leaving.

A hour later, the Timberwolves players returned to the locker room to wash after training. At this time, ESPN female reporter Rachel Nichols interviewed Butler live. Butler simply restored the training game and said, "Yes, I just destroyed them on the training ground, but I think they are all great players."

Soon, ESPN website columnist, the famous NBA rumor expert nicknamed " "Adrian Woarowski reported the incident in detail, but the source did not reveal that soon Butler led the Development League players to beat the Timberwolves' starter and immediately became the hottest topic in the NBA. The worst impact of this incident was to directly label Towns and Wiggins and almost ruined their careers. Later, Towns and Wiggins failed to prove themselves as soon as possible, which made the subsequent influence of this incident continue to increase.

At that time, Timberwolves players beat their chests and stamped their feet in the locker room. They believed that this was Butler's conspiracy. Many people suspected that Butler had planned for a long time or had joined forces with Rachel Nichols. Later, Butler made a clarification in the interview program of JJ Redick. His interview with Rachel was agreed when he submitted his transaction application three weeks ago. His original plan on that day was to be interviewed after the team's training, but because he was too excited at the time, he briefly told Rachel about the training situation. As an ESPN reporter, Rachel reported on the first time for the ratings and topics.

But where did Wonarovsky get the news first, Butler was still angry, and Wo Shen only posted a copy on Weibo-like social media that emphasized Butler wanted money to lead the Development League players to beat the main starting player. Later, Butler said in an interview program with Reddick that he only made a shot in his first training, and was defending and assisting his teammates at other times. Reddick smiled and said, "But in various reports, you got all points and dominated the game." Butler also said with a smile : "They missed this."

Through this incident, Rachel became Butler's most trusted reporter. Later, Butler would accept Rachel's exclusive interviews at key nodes of his career. This incident also brought a huge reputation to Butler in the fan circle. He became synonymous with toughness and strength, but he was quite disgusted with this behavior in the NBA professional player circle. An important unspoken rule in the NBA is that he cannot tell reporters no matter what happens in the locker room. Butler's behavior obviously seriously undermined the unspoken rule.

Tiger has always been resentful of his behavior.

In 2020, Rachel and Butler's lovely scandal in the closed park was rumored.

Downs had an argument with Butler in May 2021, when Towns had an argument with Butler, Towns directly hit back: "Go and call Rachel quickly."

When Butler had an argument with Heat's soul Haslem in 2022, Haslem also released the ultimate killer move: "You saved your career by Rachel." Butler immediately broke the defense and almost took action.

Until recently, the Timberwolves fans' retaliation has once again added new seasoning to this story. One of the charms of the NBA is that many love-hate and hatred-in-arms outside the court have added more highlights to the game on the field. Time flies by, time grinds the rubble into dust and drifts with the wind, but precipitates the story into amber crystal clear and dazzling, and it still remains endless aftertaste no matter when it is taken out.