Jimmy Butler's trade demand ahead of training camp upset the Timberwolves' teammates he grew close to during his come up in Chicago. Taj Gibson, whom he counts as both a friend and a colleague, showed some signs of bitterness when pressed on the issue after Friday's team practice, a team event Jimmy Butler was once again absent from.
"At the end of the day, you've got to look at it from a player's standpoint and a business standpoint," Gibson expressed to an ESPN reporter on Friday. "He's trying to do what he got to do, but everybody's calling him. It's more of a [situation where] I've got to go see him kind of thing. But I worked out with him all summer, so when I said what I meant, it was like a right hook. I didn't see it coming.
Gibson who is evidently quite close to Butler on-and-off the court has given his friend plenty of space to come to grips with his fateful decision. Despite the earnest effort of the coaching task to keep the players on task, the Jimmy Butler trade saga has become an unbearable distraction to the team entering the 2018-2019 NBA Season. Coaches around the league have indicated that Thibodeau's trade demands have been unreasonably high for a coach-GM will little-to-no recourse in the situation. Hopefully, Gibson and Butler, and the rest of the ex-Bulls can patch things up on a personal level, before things get messy.