We Have An Official Bully-Off As John Calipari Enters The Jimmy Butler vs. Karl-Anthony Towns Drama
[ESPN] - “You wait,” Calipari told ESPN. “Karl’s game is going to take off. He can be himself again.
“I bet that environment was so uncomfortable for him. First of all, he and Jimmy are totally different people — how they were brought up, their likes and dislikes, how they approach competition. You have one guy on this side and one guy on the other side.
“There was a dogfight, and Karl’s not one to get into that. So, he stepped back.”
“Things happen. There are power struggles all the time in [the NBA],” Calipari said. “If a guy can bully you, he will bully you. And that’s what Jimmy did to Karl. C’mon, that’s the league.”
“I don’t think bully is a good word,” Butler told ESPN. “I tell it how it is. Whenever I was in college, I had [Marquette coach] Buzz Williams to tell me how it was. I didn’t have a bunch of McDonald’s All Americans like [Calipari] has. So, he can look at it a different way. “
Butler paused, perhaps to consider ending the conversation. But he couldn’t — and didn’t.
“He can call me a bully, but when [Calipari] sees me, I’m gonna confront him about it,” Butler continued. “If I’m a bully, I’m gonna bully him, too. I’ll tell him how I feel, just like I’d tell anyone else.
“I don’t care if he’s some big head coach. I’m not bullying nobody. I’m just keeping it real. Some of these guys aren’t used to it. When you have as much talent as [Karl] has had throughout his life, guys don’t keep it real with him. I do.”
Ding, ding, ding. This Jimmy Butler vs Karl-Anthony Towns/Andrew Wiggins/Minnesota Timberwolves saga isn’t going anywhere. However, this time we have arguably the biggest name in college hops entering the ring.
Here’s the thing. Cal will always ride for his guys. That’s not a surprise. You talk to anyone who played for Cal at UMass/Memphis/Kentucky and they’ll ride for him as well. It’s no surprise that Cal would chime in here especially with KAT (one of his favorite all time players) and Derrick Rose in the middle of it. Of course he’ll talk about how Rose helped KAT and the quotes would all be about ‘la familia’ something that is consistently said around these guys.
Now, that said. I love this quote by Jimmy Butler. The dude is just going to say whatever the hell he wants and whenever the hell he wants. I also love the image of him trying to bully John Calipari now. Just randomly showing up in Lexington and trying to give him a noogie.
The truth is both are right. Butler and Towns are just two different people. They didn’t mesh well, obviously from what we saw on the court and reports off the court. But, they are doing fine separate. Towns has been damn good since Butler left and the team is starting to build around him again. Butler went to Philly and immediately hit game winners. It was the perfect trade that made too much sense.
The one comment I don’t really get is Butler taking a jab at Calipari landing McDonald’s All-Americans. One of the things that’s consistently said around the sport is Cal is someone who tells recruits exactly how it will be. It doesn’t matter if you’re an All-American or not. Buzz is a hell of a coach, but that’s the one that didn’t make much sense to me.
Either way, I need this random feud to continue.