OAKLAND, Calif. _ Jimmy Butler might play in both of the Timberwolves' back-to-back games on Sunday in Portland and Monday against the Clippers. Or he may play in one. Or perhaps none.
According to Butler, whether he plays for the Wolves is dependent upon how his body feels, and the only one making the call on whether he plays is him. Butler made that much clear after Friday's 116-99 loss to the Warriors when he held his first media session since sitting out Wednesday's win over the Jazz with what coach Tom Thibodeau termed "general soreness."
It was an absence that set in motion a lot of speculation as to Butler's motives behind sitting out. Was he trying to send the Wolves a message? Was he trying to preserve his body so as not jeopardize a potential trade the Wolves may make?
"I'm not worried about no deal," Butler said. "Injured or not, I have to take care of myself. I realize they have a job to do as an organization. I have one to do as a player. But if I'm not in the right with my body to go out there and do it, I don't want to get hurt. I've been hurt almost every year now. We're going to take this thing with caution."
And Butler made it clear that the one deciding whether he sits out is him. There doesn't seem to be a predetermined schedule of rest the Wolves have for him, it's all dependent on how Butler feels. When asked who is making the call on when Butler sits out, he said: "I let them know."
"They don't know how my body feels," Butler added. "If I'm nicked up, then you can count on that. I don't know. We'll see how it goes."
It went fine for Butler in his return to the floor on Friday night, as he scored 21 points on 10 of 23 shooting, 0-for-8 from 3-point range in the loss.
Butler was the last Wolves player in the locker room as the rest of the team boarded buses to head to Portland for Sunday's game. Butler's other absence for "precautionary rest" came against Dallas on Oct. 20, when he remained in Minnesota as the Wolves played the tail end of a back-to-back set of games on the road. Toward the end of his session, most of which focused on the issue of his absences, Butler questioned the line of questioning.
"Why are you so worried about my injury?" he asked, then with irritation in his voice, criticized the media's role in the reporting of this story, which is about to enter its eighth week since Butler notified Thibodeau of his demands in a meeting in Los Angeles.
"If all of this talk wasn't going on or not and I sat out because my body was sore, you would not be asking me this like that," Butler said. "I know it's true."
"So stop asking me questions whether I'm going to sit out or not. If I'm going to sit out, you probably won't talk to me on the day I sit out, but if I do then I do and you can create a story around it with a lot of made up stuff like y'all normally do."
