Diary of a Butler: The story of Jimmy Butler’s unlikely NBA career

Running with the Wolves

In the summer prior to the 2017-18 season, Jimmy Butler was traded to the Minnesota Timberwolves as part of a package in exchange for a haul headlined by Zach LaVine and Lauri Markkanen. Initially, this seemed like an excellent move for the Timberwolves. At the time they had Karl Anthony Towns and Andrew Wiggins, two young players with high ceilings on how good they could be.

On paper, pairing them with Jimmy Butler had the potential to make the Timberwolves a genuine threat in the Western Conference in time. And initially, this seemed to translate on the court, as at one point Minnesota had a 37-22 record. Unfortunately, their fortunes would take a negative turn as Butler would go down with a meniscus injury that would sideline him from late February to early April of that year. The Timberwolves’ post-season aspirations would come to an end with a first-round exit dealt to them by the Houston Rockets.

Even so, there didn’t seem to be much cause for concern. No one had expected anything of the Timberwolves that season, and they had shown their ability to win with Butler and the rest of the team. Surely they’d resign Jimmy and try again next season when he was healthy.

But then troubles began to arise once again.

As he did in Chicago, Jimmy Butler vocally criticized the work ethic of his teammates, questioning their drive to win. To make matters worse one of the players he had an issue with was Karl Anthony Towns, one of the young players Minnesota was hoping would be a cornerstone player for their franchise in the future.

Tensions would continue to rise when Andrew Wiggins, the other young star on the Timberwolves, would sign a rookie max extension. Believing he was worth just as much, Jimmy Butler was disappointed by the four-year, $110 million extension he was offered, ultimately rejecting it. At this point, the ‘locker room cancer’ nickname that he had been saddled with in Chicago began to make the rounds once more, as Jimmy requested to be traded.

At this point, the criticism of Butler seemed warranted, at least to an extent in some peoples’ minds. Sure he hadn’t gotten offered a max extension, but $110 million is nothing to sneeze at. Additionally, while he had lambasted his teammates publicly, none of them responded in a similar fashion. In the eyes of the public, it did seem that Butler was the one in the wrong.

In the end, Jimmy would not be traded and was set to play once the 2018-19 season arrived. At this point, one would be forgiven for thinking this was as bad as the situation would get. Those who were optimistic assumed that eventually cooler heads would prevail and the Timberwolves would enjoy equal if not greater success than that they had in the previous year.

If only they knew what was in store…

Before the regular season began, reports of a story that has since become legend broke. According to the reports, Jimmy Butler took a team of third-string players against the starters in a scrimmage. And won. To add insult to injury, Butler reportedly took only a single shot. The practice was laced with expletives that Jimmy hurled at the team and staff, telling them they needed him in a considerably less professional manner.

If all that wasn’t enough, Jimmy Butler would continue to lambast his team in interviews, and would ultimately tell his teammates to their faces in a players-only meeting that while he would play with them, he had no intention of staying or reconciling the messy situation.

The media’s impression of Jimmy Butler, as well as his tenure in Minnesota to the fans and organization could be summed up in a two-word nickname:

“Consummate un-professional.”

And so the Jimmy Butler era in Minnesota would come to an end when Butler was traded during the regular season back to the Eastern Conference, to a team whose city’s own nickname was neatly ironic as it would become home to one of the NBA’s most hated players…