There’s no way to know how it will turn out, but something is definitely rotten between the Timberwolves and star player Jimmy Butler in Minnesota.
Oddly enough, the root cause of Minnesota’s problem might be the friendship the All-Star forward formed with Hollywood star Mark Wahlberg in Chicago years ago.
When Wahlberg was filming Transformers in Chicago in 2013 and Butler was playing for the Bulls, the two played some pickup basketball and began hanging out from there.
A Chicago reporter with knowledge of the situation said the friendship led Butler to stop seeing himself as an underdog and instead led him to view himself as a star.
“The feeling in Chicago was that Butler’s game stopped growing three, four years ago, as his head grew ever larger,” according to Patrick Reusse of the Star Tribune.
Butler created a media circus yesterday when he caused a scene at Minnesota’s practice and then immediately sat down for an interview with ESPN which he had set up.
It was a calculated move that shows his ego – and possibly Wahlberg’s influence.
“I’m not saying that Wahlberg was the adviser for the dramatic short featuring Butler that was played out on Wednesday at Mayo Clinic Square, but it was done well enough to be a Marky Mark Production,” Reusse writes.
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