Let’s preface everything that’s to come with this concession: I don’t personally know John Beilein, I’ve not yet had occasion to interact with him, and I certainly don’t know what’s in his heart.
And so, I can’t give you a definitive answer on whether he meant to call his team “a bunch of slugs” as opposed to “a bunch of thugs,” or not.
What can be said with some amount of certainty, however, is that explanation or not, apology or not, this is not immediately going away, and there will be some sort of fallout as a result.