Jeff Teague tells 'what really happened' with Jimmy Butler's Timberwolves outburst
God bless, Jeff Teague. The former Timberwolves point guard was a guest on the Club 520 Podcast this week and told the story of what happened when Jimmy Butler blew up a Timberwolves practice in which he cursed out Karl-Anthony Towns and later spilled the beans in a planned interview with ESPN.
The story unfolded after the host of the show said vegans are worse than Timberwolves fans, to which Teague jumped in: "No they're not. Nobody's worse than Timberwolves."
After getting that burn out of the way, Teague brought up the infamous Jimmy Butler practice that happened during training camp in 2018: 'I'mma tell y'all what really happened," he began.
"So we were at practice one day. Jimmy ain't came to no workouts. Workouts start in September, we don't see Jimmy. Nobody's talking to Jimmy. We ain't seen Jimmy. Jimmy's my guy, that's my dog," said Teague, noting that Butler finally arrived after three days of training camp.
"We all think Jimmy about to practice," he continued. "Jimmy ain't practicing. Jimmy laying over there getting stretched out, getting massaged while we running laps, we diving for loose balls. Thibs says we're going to scrimmage. Jimmy hops up. 'I'm playing,'" Teague recalled. "[Thibs] like, starters: Jeff, Jimmy, Wig, Taj, KAT. Jimmy said, 'I ain't playing with them.'"
Thibodeau, coach of the Wolves at the time, allowed Butler's demand so he put Derrick Rose in the starting lineup with Teague, Andrew Wiggins, Taj Gibson and Towns. Butler teamed up with the backups and players who were destined for the G-League.
"Jimmy said, 'I'm playing with them.' He picked the Bad News Bears. No offense, but everybody in there, they weren't going to make the team," said Teague.
"Jump the ball. He's like, 'I got KAT.' I was like, ooh s***. Jimmy and KAT ain't like each other. That's another part of the story I'll get to one day. They ain't like each other. That gets real funny when they don't like each other. So they jump the ball. We throw it to KAT first play. Jimmy steals it. They go down and score. Like, 'Come on KAT, post his little ass up, man! He can't guard you.'
"Jimmy's like, 'F*** outta here! He's trash!' Steal the ball again. They go down and score. Jimmy started talking to the GM, everybody in the gym. 'Y'all better motherf****** pay me! I'm like that!'
"I'm like, 'He is nuts.' I'm laughing, not realizing what's coming with this. I'm laughing, me and D-Rose laughing. We in the game, we keep throwing to KAT. KAT finally scored," Teague explained, adding that Towns started to talk trash, telling Butler "He's too little."
"I'm like, 'Yeah, KAT. Talk to that motherf***** man he ain't nothing.' Boy, they go on this 10-0 run. They dunking, hitting 3s. Jimmy ain't scored at all. He's just stealing the ball, passing the ball, getting assists, just playing the right way. But he doing everything. Time run out, they beat us like 18-6.
"Man, Jimmy going crazy: 'Y'all think that team can win without me?! I'm him! Pay me! Pay me!'" said Teague.
"Mind you, he ain't took off his Jordan warmup yet. He finally takes it off. He got the Timberwolves shirt on but he cut the 'Minnesota' out so it's just chest. He cut the 'Minnesota' out the shorts, it's just shorts. He out here with a hole in the middle of his shirt and the middle of his leg, so I'm crying now, I'm crying. I'm like, 'Yo, bro's crazy.' But I didn't realize he just beat us with the G-League team.
"He's like, 'I just beat them with the G-Leaguers. This is your starters?!' So now I'm laughing, I'm still crying laughing. But I'm like, he talking about me. I'm one of the starters, I'm like hold up. I'm mad now."
Teague and the starters wanted a rematch but Thibodeau had Butler's squad take on another team in scrimmage. Butler's team won again, and as Teague and the starters were ready for a rematch, "Jimmy just darts to the locker room."
"I'm talking about runs fast as hell. So we play the second unit, we beat 'em and we all run in the locker room we're like 'Jimmy bring you ass out here we want to play again.' Jimmy gone. Jimmy at home," continued Teague.
"We have practice for like another hour. We all shower, we go in the locker room, ESPN pop up...Rachel Nichols and Jimmy Butler on TV. He's like, 'Yeah I just killed them all at practice and I think they're all good players. We're like, 'What? Hold on.'
I can't make this up, bro. He came and killed us and did an interview at home. One of the most iconic moments I've ever been apart of in basketball. How you set up an interview knowing you about to kill...he's GOAT'd for that."
Title: Bring Me The Sports co-owner, editor Email: joe@bringmethenews.com Twitter: @JoeBMTN Education: Southwest Minnesota State University Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota Expertise: All things Minnesota sports Nelson has covered Minnesota sports for two decades, starting his media career in sports radio. He worked at small market Minnesota stations in Marshall and St. Cloud before joining one of the nation's highest-rated sports stations, KFAN-FM 100.3 in the Twin Cities. There, he was the producer of the top-rated mid-morning sports show with Minnesota Vikings announcer Paul Allen. His radio experience helped blossom a career as a sports writer, joining Minneapolis-based Bring Me The News in 2011. Nelson and Adam Uren became co-owners of Bring Me The News in 2018 and have since more than tripled the site's traffic and launched Bring Me The Sports in cooperation with the Sports Illustrated/FanNation umbrella. Nelson has covered the Super Bowl and numerous training camps, NFL combines, the MLB All-Star Game and Minnesota playoff games, in addition to the day-to-day happenings on and off the field of play. Nelson also has extensive knowledge of non-sports subjects, including news and weather. He works closely with Bring Me The News meteorologist Sven Sundgaard to produce a bevy of weather and climate information for Minnesota readers. Nelson helped launch and manage the Bring Me The News Radio Network, which provided more than 50 radio stations around Minnesota with daily news, sports and weather reports from 2011-17.