CHICAGO - It started as a whisper, gossip about his unhappiness, his craving to shine in a big market, and the desire to dance with another established All-Star in hopes of winning an NBA title.
As summer reluctantly fades and the fall season beckons, the quiet murmurs have turned into a noisy clamor. What was once just harmless babble is now confirmed as the "the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth."
JImmy Butler has spoken. He wants a trade.
And the Minnesota Timberwolves, like that hit song, are Rolling in the Deep.
With training camp just two days away and the 2018-19 regular season a mere 22 days after that, the timing is awful. Minnesota must feel like a music band that finally caught a break and is about to go on tour, only to find out the night before that the lead vocalist is abandoning ship.
So yeah, it's a very awful, lousy situation. Unfortunately, a star's whim cares little about anything else. It's all about personal circumstance.
And for good 'ole "Jimmy Buckets" that means heading to New York to bed with the Knicks or the Nets, or to Los Angeles to rescue the talent-barren Clippers.
According to The Star Tribune, Butler's trade demands were motivated by Minnesota's refusal to renegotiate his contract and his unhappiness with young stars Karl Anthony-Towns and Andrew Wiggins.
This past offseason, Butler declined the Wolves' four-year extension worth $110 million because he reportedly wanted a max deal closer to the five-year $190 million that he is eligible to sign next July when he becomes a free agent.
In his lone season in Minnesota, Butler was a franchise changer, guiding the team to 47 wins, 16 more than the season before he came. He averaged 22.2 points, 5.3 rebounds and 4.9 assists in 59 starts, helping the Timberwolves reach the playoffs for the first time in 14 years.
A FOUR-TIME ALL-STAR and the 2015 Defensive Player of the Year, Butler. 29. missed 23 games with a knee injury. The team went 10-13 without him, a far cry the stellar 37-22 when he suits up.
While Butler evidently was a catalyst on both ends of the floor, his vocal style of leadership, which includes publicly calling out teammates demanding toughness and hard work, soured on the rest of the pack.
Butler's relationship with Wiggins and Towns, who just inked a super max deal worth $190 million, is pretty much like the rapport between P.R. princess Mocha Uson and the queen of all media Kris Aquino. Civil but lifeless.
Still, Wolves head coach and president of basketball operations Tom Thibodeau had desired to hold on to Butler for the entire 2018-19 season and make another playoffs run. The hope was that winning plenty of games will keep the peace.
But that plan quickly evaporated when team owner Glen Taylor told an ESPN source during an NBA Board of Governors meeting on Sunday in New York that he wants the former Bull traded quickly to avoid a circus.
When Butler was officially introduced as a Timberwolf at a June 29, 2017 press conference, the franchise was ecstatic to acquire a sturdy 6-foot-8, 236-pound athlete in the prime of his career who hates losing as much as he loves winning. After many lean years, prosperous times lay ahead.
Fifteen months later, Butler has worn out his welcome. There are no championship trophies to be lifted, just wounds to be healed.
The brief Butler-Timberwolves marriage will be reminisced fondly for the joys of a playoff appearance. But the bigger footnote has to be the searing pain of this divorce
Adele painted it best through the words in her ballad: The scars of your love remind me of us. They keep me thinking that we almost had it all.
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