Jimmy Butler is poised to receive a villain's welcome when he returns to Minneapolis on Saturday night for the first time since he forced a trade from the Minnesota Timberwolves. If the Philadelphia 76ers star is to be believed, though, he'll relish the boos raining down from an angry Target Center crowd. Why? As Butler tells it, being hated and getting attention is better than being loved and getting ignored.
“I don't care about being loved all the time, it's no fun that way,” he said before Saturday's game, per Dane Moore of Zone Coverage. “I think people will pay way more attention to you whenever they ‘dislike' or ‘hate' you and all that. Everything you do they're paying attention to you, because they gotta nitpick something. I welcome it. I embrace it. Let's see what y'all can point out tonight.”
The four-time All-Star spent just one full season with the Timberwolves before growing crossways with the organization. Despite helping the team make the playoffs last season for the first time since 2004, Butler requested a trade from Minnesota over the summer, a wish former coach and president of basketball operations Tom Thibodeau, since fired, initially tried to ignore.
Tension between Butler and his team reached a head in October, when he returned to the Timberwolves from a self-imposed absence to berate teammates, coaches, and executives during an infamous practice. He was traded to the Sixers several weeks later in exchange for Robert Covington and Dario Saric.
Philadelphia and Minnesota tipoff at 8:00 p.m. EST from Target Center.
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