After a chat with Dwyane Wade, Jimmy Butler has been dis-invited to Gabrielle Union's BBQ
NBA players, while on NBA benches, enjoy scoping out the sidelines for NBA game attendees that they find NBA-level attractive. It’s a long season, games can take too long to finish, and especially in blowout contests players can’t help but pay attention to attendees who have spent their month’s allowance on tickets and all the accoutrements needed to draw the attention of an NBA bench.
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Monday night’s Chicago Bulls win over the Detroit Pistons was a blowout, and with Piston coach Stan Van Gundy fuming on the opposite sideline some 40-feet away, Bulls star Jimmy Butler took the time to delight in the appeals of a punter sitting on the opposite sideline, while trying to paw teammate Dwyane Wade’s attention.
Or so it looked. Via Gustavo Vega’s Twitter account:
When Your Trying To Hook Up Your Boy With Girls At The Club https://t.co/w1ovOFLL1e
— Gustavo Vega (@iamvega1982) December 20, 2016
Wade’s wife, actress Gabrielle Union, went up and denied Jimmy Butler some Christmas-themed, vinegar-based coleslaw as a result:
???? ???? ????… crosses Jimmy off the BBQ list https://t.co/pNF5lUZALy
— Gabrielle Union (@itsgabrielleu) December 20, 2016
Butler, obviously made aware of a famous actress’ dis-invitation, went ahead and explained himself:
A video posted by Jimmy Butler (@jimmybutler) on Dec 19, 2016 at 11:20pm PST
The “@johnson_c5” refers to “Skill Development trainer and Mental toughness [something]” Chris Johnson, who on Tuesday morning documented the fact that Bulls big man Taj Gibson took in one of his early morning workouts on the same day he took and made all eight of his shot attempts in the win over Detroit:
A video posted by Chris J (@johnson_c5) on Dec 20, 2016 at 6:53am PST
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In September, talking with Sports Illustrated’s Andrew Sharp, Johnson detailed Butler’s early-morning routine:
Johnson: I’ll get up at 5 in the morning. Typically my first workout is with Jimmy Butler. Jimmy gets up at 5:30. He’s gonna have his shake, he’s gonna have his breakfast, and then we’re on the floor by 7 a.m. We already have his entire day planned out. Two basketball workouts on the floor, and [in between] he’s going to get strength and conditioning, treatment, and we have his schedule for the week.
He also, for the purposes of this BBQ, detailed why Butler (a Texas native that works in Chicago) prefers to work out in Los Angeles with Johnson, a Houston native:
SI: And most of this happens in Los Angeles. At this point, it seems like half the NBA ends up in L.A. over the summers. What’s the draw there?
Johnson: Well, some guys don’t want to be in L.A. It’s not all L.A. But a lot of the business is done out here. Most of the agents live out here. A lot of these guys have ESPN, they have shoe deals, they have commercials. And what they find is… Let’s say Jimmy wanted to stay in Chicago. Well, we would spend more time traveling back and forth on an airplane to California taking care of off-the-court business. It’s better just to live there. You don’t miss a beat on your workouts, you got good weather, you’re able to take care of all business off the floor. Most guys matriculate to the area.
Chicago entered the contest having lost nine of 14 contests, alternating clangs from long range with hideous perimeter defense alongside the sort of expectedly passive play you’d await from a team put together with no real game plan save for keeping the owner happy with a few extra playoff games. The Bulls moved a contest over .500 with Monday’s win, making the sort of obvious point in the one-sided win that you see coming a mile away.
Wade (13 points, four rebounds, five assists in 22 minutes) and Butler (19 points, six assists, zero turnovers) sat the entire fourth quarter in Chicago’s 113-82 win, which gave them ample time to peruse.
Still, Jimmy Butler screwed up. It’s a BBQ, man. Garbielle Union’s BBQ.
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Kelly Dwyer is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at KDonhoops@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
