Jimmy Butler says his loud, emotional first practice back with the Timberwolves was "brutally honest" about wanting to win. He calls the relationship with Minnesota "not fixed" and doubts it will improve, despite apologizing if his approach was wrong.
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You returned to practice for the first time with the Wolves, and I'm just gonna read a little bit of Adrian Wojnowski's report on what happened there, that you were loud, emotional, passionate, we like to say, targeting Coach Tom Thibodeau, teammates like Karl-Anthony Towns and Andrew Wiggins, that you told GM Scott Layton, quote, "You effing need me." How would you describe what happened today?
Um, A lot of it's true. A lot of it is true. But you gotta think, I haven't played basketball in so long. And I'm so passionate and I love the game. And I don't do it for any other reason except for to compete and go up against the best to try to prove that I can hang. So all my emotion came out at one time. Was it the right way to do it?
No.
But I can't control that when I'm out there competing. That's my love of the game. That's raw me. Me at my finest. Me at my purest. That's what you're gonna get inside the lines.
And— I was gonna say, is it not the right way for it to come out? Do you think it was the wrong thing to do?
No.
Or was it an okay thing to do?
I think that I was honest. Was I brutally honest? Yes. But I think that that's the problem. Everybody's so scared to be honest with one another. If you didn't like the way that I handled myself in practice, one of the players come up to me. Somebody say something. Anybody. I'm not gonna take it offensive. It's not personal. "Jimmy, you shouldn't have done that." Yeah, you probably right. I would have said, "I ain't hooped in I don't know how long." I mean, I'm passionate about it. I love the game, and I love to win. And that's all I was out there doing was competing, playing hard, doing what I'm supposed to do on the basketball court.
You were back in practice today. I assume you're going back tomorrow. Should people— should people think because you are back in practice that this is fixed or it's on its way to being fixed?
I think people think that. I think people think that. I would think that too. It's not. It's not fixed. Let's just be honest. It's not fixed.
Is it fixable?
It could be. It could be. But do I think so? No. 'Cause you gotta be honest. I'm being honest. Do I think so? No. I'm being honest with you. But is everybody gonna be honest? No, no, everybody's not gonna be honest. Like, if you go and say, "Which one of y'all told what Jimmy said today in practice?" Everybody, "Oh, I don't know." Yeah, be honest. I don't care. Ain't nothing we can do about it now, but be honest. That's it. I just want everybody to be happy. I wanna win. I'm sorry if I go about it the wrong way. I really do apologize. I just wanna win.
But you feel strongly that there isn't a fit here, that in the end you tried it, and that with everything you want and everything everyone else wants, You just don't see it.
You know, you're supposed to be optimistic, so everybody's really, really, really positive about the whole thing. But I know the truth. I know the truth. I know the whole truth. We've talked about it. You know, and everybody may not want to say it, but you know it. I can tell whenever you're stuttering and you're gathering your words. Like, if it's the truth, boom, it's coming out right away. You don't need to think about how to say it. So whenever you're thinking about how to beat around the point, when I ask you, "Is this water?" and you say, "Well, it's not fruit punch." Like, well, obviously, but you know that—
Right, but answer me, is it water?
Exactly. The answer is water, and that's what always going on.
