Philadelphia 76ers head coach Brett Brown isn’t making much of recent chatter about Jimmy Butler calling him out over the team’s offense.
In light of a report that painted Butler as aggressive and somewhat disrespectful of Brown when criticizing him in meetings, Brown said Saturday that he considered it a “non-story” and an unfair depiction of what actually happened.
"I think it's a non story.. I get the marketplace of why this is exciting.. I think in a crazy way that it's unfair to Jimmy Butler.. it's not fair with the description of that particular film session that was referenced."
— Kevin Kinkead (@Kevin_Kinkead) January 5, 2019
"we know his personality, none of this should surprise anybody, he's got opinions and he wants to be heard"
— Kevin Kinkead (@Kevin_Kinkead) January 5, 2019
Brown even went as far as to admit that Butler had a point and wanted more pick and rolls, and it was up to the coach to determine how to make that happen without diminishing the impact of Joel Embiid.
"He likes pick and rolls better than DHOs. It's true that more and more of those should be run, but not at the expense of Joel Embiid.. if you tell me where our bread is buttered it's Joel Embiid and then Jimmy Butler"
— Kevin Kinkead (@Kevin_Kinkead) January 5, 2019
Brown may just be trying to smooth things over publicly, but he doesn’t sound too terribly bothered about whatever happened with Butler. We’ll see if this proves to be a bump in the road or the beginning of some internal strife. For now, the former seems more likely.
