If you were following the NBA in 2018, you already know about Jimmy Butler’s iconic practice session with the Minnesota Timberwolves. When asked to scrimmage with the starters during training camp, he responded, “I ain’t playing with them.” Instead, Butler put himself on a team full of two-way players and backups. What’s more, he beat the starting squad with them.
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Over the years, this story has become a part of Butler’s lore for fans, speaking to his passion for the game. But for his teammates on the Timberwolves, it was obviously a whole different matter. Darius Johnson-Odom was one of the players on Jimmy’s team during the infamous practice. He shared his version of that day while on Jefe Island’s talk show.
“They break the huddle. Jimmy say, ‘I got an hour’…Man, he go crazy. One play, I remember he switched on KAT. He made KAT pass the ball out. Jimmy rotate to the next man, then he gets the steal. Man, Jimmy say, ‘Man, y’all need me!’.“
His intensity was part of the appeal that had inspired Minnesota to acquire Butler during the 2017 offseason. But as a new player on the team, Jimmy Butler’s harsh motivation rubbed some of his teammates the wrong way.
Speaking on how Jimmy continued trash-talking throughout the game, Johnson-Odom added, “Some of the players not feeling it. Then Jimmy say something like, ‘I’m like God!'” Darius explained how one of their teammates Anthony Toliver was a devout and practicing Christian. “I just see him shake his head,” Johnson-Odom said before breaking into laughter.
Though somewhat blasphemous, his former teammate did understand where Jimmy was coming from. Butler himself would later shed light on what went down that day.
Butler sees it all as part and parcel of the game
“I love the game and I don’t do it for any other reason except for to compete, and go up against the best, and try to prove that I can hang,” Jimmy Butler said during his sit-down with Rachel Nichols in 2018.
To be fair, Butler always played with a chip on his shoulder. As the 30th pick in the 2011 NBA Draft, Butler had to earn his stripes on the Chicago Bulls roster. And even after he was a certified starter and All-NBA level defender, Jimmy continued to play like he had something to prove.
The 6x All-Star explained how his emotions got the best of him since he was returning to training camp after a long off-season. “Was it the right way to do it? No. But I can’t control that when I’m out there competing.”
For Butler, who has time and again pushed himself to new heights, that was the only way he knew how to play. “Me at my finest, me at my purest. That’s what you’re gonna get inside the lines,” he added.
Though this incident did sour his relations with the front office in Minnesota, it also embodied the passion that proved he could be the perfect centerpiece for Pat Riley’s Miami Heat.
