Jimmy Butler, Jae Crowder latest in NBA to spark fake Twitter beef

Minnesota Timberwolves' Jeff Teague (0) and Utah Jazz's Jae Crowder, back, tussle after Teague was called for a foul for pushing Utah Jazz's Ricky Rubio to the court during the second half of an NBA basketball game Friday, March 2, 2018, in Salt Lake City. Teague was called for a flagrant foul and ejected following the fight on the court. (Kim Raff/AP)

Late in the fourth quarter, with the Utah Jazz pulling away from the Minnesota Timberwolves, Jeff Teague had enough.

As Ricky Rubio stormed down the floor with 5:23 remaining and his team looking to add to its nine-point lead, Teague levelled Rubio with a cheap shot that sent the Spaniard hurtling towards the Wolves bench. It was unnecessary, excessive, and was rightfully deemed a Flagrant 2 foul to send the Minnesota point guard for an early shower.

Just before he could wash away his sins, though, Jae Crowder ran over to Teague to let him know just what he thought of the dirty play. As things started to heat up, members of both the Jazz and the Wolves tried to break the two apart before the referees finally got the situation under control.

One player who couldn’t get involved was the injured Jimmy Butler — out another 3-5 weeks after a successful meniscus surgery on his right knee — and so he took to Twitter to defend his point guard.

It only took Crowder about 45 minutes to see the tweet, and he responded to let Butler know he’s ready to have at it.

The irony here is that they both knew exactly what they were doing. This situation was never going to escalate as the two are actually good friends courtesy of their Marquette University alum status, and Crowder revealed as much to reporters after the game.

“He’s (Butler’s) a competitor, he’s a trash talker, all of the above,” Crowder said when asked about the incident. “He wishes he was out there competing in a game like that. That’s probably what’s eating him up the most, that he wasn’t on the court fighting with his guys, but, that’s my guy.”

Even Dwyane Wade all the way in Miami, and arguably the greatest Marquette alum, knew it was much ado about nothing.

Just like when Joel Embiid makes Instagram posts that clown on Russell Westbrook, Hassan Whiteside and Andre Drummond, or Enes Kanter tries to raise his social profile with tweets about LeBron James, it’s all just fun and games.

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