Report: Pat Riley Called Tom Thibodeau A Motherfucker For Trying To Squeeze Him On A Jimmy Butler Trade

It’s no secret that Timberwolves coach and president of basketball operations Tom Thibodeau does not want to trade the disgruntled Jimmy Butler, since sacrificing short-term success for long-term planning is not in his own best interests. But thanks to ESPN’s Jorge Sedano, we have a really good story about broken-down Butler trade talks that both reinforces how difficult Thibs is being and also ends with the Wolves coach getting called a motherfucker by Pat Riley.

Here’s the audio from Sedano’s ESPN Los Angeles radio show today, in which he describes the almost-trade between the Heat and the Wolves:

Here it is transcribed:

There’s been a couple of different incarnations of this deal. The first one, the Heat didn’t want to take back Gorgui Dieng. Then, the next incarnation of the deal was ‘OK forget it, let’s just do it straight up, just for Jimmy on your end.’ They finally relented on Josh Richardson, they were giving them Josh Richardson, then Dion Waiters was going to be the cap filler, and then a protected first-round pick. The medicals were exchanged, which generally in the NBA means this is a done deal. And then, Thibs called back and wanted more picks. And Pat Riley literally—I was told—called him a motherbleeper and hung up the phone.

I bet 10 minutes until Jeff Teague claims this never happened.