Minnesota Timberwolves point guard Jeff Teague is denying a report by The Athletic's Shams Charania that Jimmy Butler held a players-only meeting today.
According to Charania, Butler expressed to his teammates during the meeting that he would compete with them, as it becomes increasingly likely that he'll be with the team at least to start the regular season. Charania also reported that several players spoke up during the meeting but Butler led it, making it known that his issues are with management.
Shortly after Charania tweeted out those details, Teague responded, "it wasn’t no players meeting you just made that up bro y’all gotta relax with this fake news." Minnesota's player development coach John Lucas also questioned Charania's report.
However, Butler had already confirmed to ESPN's Rachel Nichols that the meeting did, in fact, occur on Thursday.
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During Wednesday's practice, Butler reportedly "left teammates and coaches largely speechless" as he dominated the gym in every way. According to ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski, sources say Butler "verbally challenged" several teammates, coaches and members of the front office, and was "vociferous and emotional at times," as he targeted head coach Tom Thibodeau, general manager Scott Layden, Karl-Anthony Towns and Andrew Wiggins.
Woj writes: "Butler participated in multiple intrasquad scrimmages, where he joined the bench units against the starters and went out of his way to challenge the team's two young stars, Towns and Wiggins, league sources said. Coaches and players were largely speechless at Butler's tour de force throughout the workout, league sources said."
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