Derrick Rose Defends Jimmy Butler’s Practice Tirade In New Book

Jimmy Butler became a problem for the Minnesota Timberwolves back in October when he had an epic tirade at a practice where he challenged head coach Tom Thibodeau, general manager Scott Layden, and even some of his teammates in Andrew Wiggins and Karl-Anthony Towns. After the incident, Butler was eventually traded to the Philadelphia 76ers where he was one of the standout players on the team. Derrick Rose has a new book coming out called I’ll Show You where he goes into detail about the incident and even defends Butler at times.

“Look, it wasn’t his fault,” Rose wrote. “It’s the league’s fault. Nothing against Karl-Anthony Towns, he’s cool — and he’s good. But you get these kids and you spoil them before they achieve something.”

Rose explained that Butler’s frustrations were primarily with the general manager who Butler didn’t feel was being appreciative of his services to the team.

“Jimmy was feeling, ‘Why’d y’all pay them first and I was the one that got you to the playoffs?’ That’s all it was. Jimmy wasn’t doing it right, though he was right,” Rose said.

The Timberwolves star went on to say that coach Thibodeau took the whole thing pretty hard and that the media blew a lot of Butler’s actions out of proportion.

[Via]