ButlerGate: The Morning After

Good morning and welcome back to ButlerGate: Day 2.

As you are well aware of by now, news broke yesterday that Jimmy Butler has officially requested a trade from the Minnesota Timberwolves, capping the Buckets era in Minnesota at just under 500 days. Eric did a great job briefing just how messy this situation has gotten, and Josh painted a grim (yet realistic) picture of what the current trade market looks for the Tomball native.

Once the Butler domino finally dropped, the Internet was ablaze with questions — Which teams are on Jimmy’s preferred list? Did Karl-Anthony Towns truly make an ultimatum that it was him or Jimmy? What’s Thibs’ role in all of this? Glen Taylor...wtf? What does Ricky Rubio think about all of this?

(Luckily for us, that question was answered shortly thereafter):

“Jimmy Butler” was the top trend on Twitter for most of the afternoon, with every NBA fan chiming in with their own joke, take, or comment on the dicey situation currently taking place in the Land of 10,000 Lakes. However, it was the tweet of one specific family member who stuck out above the rest:

Yes, that’s Nick Wiggins — Andrew Wiggins’ brother — seemingly praising the news that Jimmy Butler wanted out of Minnesota. While Andrew himself isn’t usually keen on getting caught up in social media drama (key word here is “usually”), it was extremely telling that Wiggins’ own brother would utter a sigh of relief that Butler finally announced his desire to leave the Wolves.

As is par for the course in situations like this, Nick Wiggins quickly deleted the post, attempting to scrub away the emotional outburst. Meanwhile, Woj dropped a few minor pellets towards the end of the afternoon — most notably that Thibs was not interested in trading Jimmy Butler at the moment (shocker!) — and it truly seemed like #NBATwitter had finally maxed out it’s character limit for the day.

Let me just check my Instagram one last time before bed...

...AND WE’RE BACK! Just hours after Nick Wiggins removed his “Hallelujah” tweet about the Butler news, Jimmy clapped back via his Instagram account, shouting “Hallelujah” after running a wind sprint uphill, finishing with this inspirational message “keep that same energy,”

The post was clearly directed back at Nick Wiggins (and more subtlety Andrew), and confirmed what all of us already knew — Jimmy was definitely monitoring the drama via social media all day and as he tends to do, wanted to add a little spice/drama to an already unraveling situation.

So that was that... just another casual Wednesday afternoon where Jimmy demanded a trade, the sibling of the highest paid player on the team expressed jubilation, and Jimmy clapped back in the best way he knew how. All in all, it was a pretty eventful day, and I can’t imagine how it could get any more entertai...

*cue record scratching*

“OH MY GOD IS THAT CAPTAIN JACKS’S MUSIC?”

While most of the country was fast asleep, Stephen Jackson, yes THIS STEPHEN JACKSON, chimed in with his two cents, comparing Andrew Wiggins to the Tin Man (an ironically great comp by the way) while simultaneously undressing Nick Wiggins with the patented “you ain’t ever played basketball.”

As mentioned previously, despite being only 23-years old, Andrew Wiggins isn’t much for subliminal messaging through social media, instead choosing to use these apps to gush about his dogs and promote his love for video games. Considering Wiggins’ track record in these situations, the night had apparently (and finally) concluded...

Wiggins indeed DID respond, posting this photo on Instagram stating “I keep that same energy where I go” and quickly updating his IG story to direct the message at SJ (Stephen Jackson). According to the Elias Sports Bureau, this was the first time in 23 years that Andrew Wiggins had shown real, human-like emotions, which for me personally got me all sorts of excited about a potential “Andrew Wiggins Revenge Tour” (imagine Maple Jordan against the Cavaliers, but this time it’s against EVERYONE).

The retort did not go unnoticed, and Captain Jack was quick to give his final 98 cents before posting a screenshot of his stats from Basketball Reference (a fantastic move by the way):

Being called “lil’ one” and compared yet again to the Tin Man would aggravate any normal person, but before we all rush to Andrew’s aid here, let’s remember we’re talking about THIS STEPHEN JACKSON, so comments like “make sure your hands are straight when you see me bruh” are not things to take mildly.

AND WITH THAT... the night finally ended (no, for real, I promise). It was a feverish day online, full of trade demands, Woj Bombs, and unsolicited rumors of happenings between teammates on the court (and off it), all concluding with the second most well-known person from the Malice at the Palace smoking a blunt and comparing a former number one overall pick to a character from the Wizard of Oz.

Just another day in the Association.