Thibodeau, Karl-Anthony Towns, Gibson Reflect on Jimmy Butler's Epic Practice

Minnesota Timberwolves head coach Tom Thibodeau and players Karl-Anthony Towns and Taj Gibson addressed the media Friday regarding Jimmy Butler's behavior at Wednesday's practice. 

According to Chris Hine of the Star Tribune, Thibodeau provided a diplomatic response in reference to the practice: "I did expect [Butler] there and some things that have been reported are correct and some are not. It’s not uncommon when players scrimmage that there will be some talk. It was competitive."

ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski reported that Butler was heated throughout the practice, and talked trash toward the likes of Towns, Andrew Wiggins, Thibodeau and general manager Scott Layden.

At one point, Butler reportedly yelled at Layden, saying, "You f--king need me, Scott. You can't win without me."

Butler reportedly dominated the scrimmage alongside a group of third-team players against the first- and second-team units.

Thibodeau stopped short of condemning Butler when asked if he displayed proper leadership during Wednesday's practice, but he did offer his personal feelings on how a leader should act: "There's a lot of different ways to define leadership. The biggest job of a leader in my eyes is to unite and inspire. It's OK to confront. That's not an issue. The way you confront that's important. But if you do confront, don't beat down. The big thing is to lift people up. You make other people better."

Fox Sports North tweeted a video of Thibodeau's comments:

Butler told ESPN's Rachel Nichols after Wednesday's practice that he responded after Towns began talking trash to him.

Wojnarowski has reported on numerous occasions that Butler has an issue with Towns.

Per Hine, Towns said little about Wednesday's practice, noting, "We had practice. We got better. Everyone got better and we left."

Towns attempted to place the focus on playing winning basketball:

Gibson provided a more in-depth outlook and compared the practice to his time with Butler and Thibodeau in Chicago.

The veteran power forward told Hine that while the atmosphere wasn't foreign to him, it may have been to some of the other players on the team. "I felt like it was a normal practice, but it was new for guys. It's only our second year together, but I've been around Jimmy for a long time. We always had practices like that in Chicago. It was always a good competition and after it ended everybody just shook up and we still understood we were teammates."

Given his experience in those types of situations, Gibson said that he didn't take offense to the way Butler acted: "It was just guys being competitive and going at it in practice. I never thought it was too serious, but I don't know. I didn't think it was that serious because I'm just used to playing against guys growing up, talking trash and having fun at the same time."

Butler told Nichols that he held a players-only meeting with his teammates Thursday to let them know he's upset with management and not them.

He requested a trade three weeks ago, and according to Wojnarowski, a deal with the Miami Heat was nearly struck last weekend before falling apart.

Butler did not accompany the team to Milwaukee for their preseason finale against the Bucks on Friday, per Wolves sideline reporter Katie George, and it is unclear if he will play in the regular-season opener against the San Antonio Spurs on Wednesday if he is still on the roster.