This will be perhaps one of the most anticipated games of the NBA season.
Jimmy Butler and the 76ers will face the Minnesota Timberwolves, the squad he forced a trade from. Tuesday's matchup at Wells Fargo Center will be nationally televised on NBA TV.
Butler was at odds with Minnesota's front office and wasn't a good mix with the Timberwolves' young stars Karl-Anthony Towns and Andrew Wiggins. Kevin Garnett recently asked him on the KG Area 21 show if his issue was more with management or what he wanted from other players.
"Maybe a little bit of both," Butler said. "And it's not a bad thing. I just look at it as the way that I came into the league is different that then way the league is now."
The Chicago Bulls selected him with 30th and final first-round pick of the 2011 NBA draft. He averaged 2.6 points and 8.5 minutes with no starts as a rookie. Despite that, the 29-year-old refused to be outworked by anyone. Butler started all 67 games he played in during his third season. In season four, he garnered his first of four consecutive All-Star selections.
Butler, who was traded to Minnesota in June 22, 2017, garnered four NBA All-Defensive second team honors during his first seven seasons. The eighth-year veteran was also the league's 2015 most improved player.
"I really grinded to get to where I am now," he told Garnett. "I see what the hard work, what the heart, what the time puts into it. I wish everybody can have the mentality that I have. I don't care what it is. I just want to be the best."
Butler knows that there is one thing he has to get better at every day. He has to realize that everyone doesn't share the same basketball mentality as him.
Butler has said on multiple occasions that he has a good relationship with Wiggins and Towns. But one has to imagine that he would love to get the best of his former team.
He's averaging 18.7 points in the 25 games played with the Sixers (28-16) since the Nov. 12 trade. The Sixers themselves have gone 19-10 since the deal was finalized.
Meanwhile, the Timberwolves (21-22) have gone 16-13 over that time. Minnesota acquired Robert Covington, Dario Saric and Jerryd Bayless in the trade. Covington is sidelined with a knee injury in the trio's first game against their former teammates.
