Jimmy Butler Will Play Timberwolves’ Season Opener

Despite wanting to leave the team, Jimmy Butler will play the first game of the season for the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Jimmy Butler practised on Sunday and coach Tom Thibodeau says he will play against the San Antonio Spurs on Wednesday.

After requesting a trade in September, Jimmy Butler had been absent from training camp and preseason.

After much speculation, confrontation and rumors, it appears Butler will give his all even if he’ll eventually be traded.

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The Athletic’s Jon Krawczynski asked Butler if he expected to be booed during Minnesota’s first home game on Friday. His response was Bullish.

“Sure. Go ahead, boo me,” Butler said. “It ain’t going to change the way I play. That’s going to make me smile more. So please, come on with it.”

Read: Jimmy Butler Puts Outburst Down to His Passion

After calling out his teammates and coaches at practice last week, Butler says it wasn’t personal.

“A lot of it is true. You have to think … I haven’t played played basketball in so long,” Butler told ESPN.

“And I’m so passionate. And I love the game. And I don’t do it for any other reason except to compete and go up against the best to try to prove that I can hang. So all of my emotion came out at one time. Was it the right way to do it? No. But I can’t control that when I’m out there competing. That’s my love of the game. That’s raw me. Me at my finest, my purest. That’s what you’re going to get inside the lines.

“I was honest. Was I brutally honest? Yes. But I think that’s the problem. Everybody is so scared to be honest with one another. If you didn’t like the way I handled myself in practice, one of the players come up to me. Somebody say something. Anybody. I’m not going to take offense. It’s not personal.”