Thanks to the crew of Chicago Bulls beat writers and a fellow colleague in the Bulls community, we now have a better idea of what took place this season behind closed doors with the Bulls.
Spoiler: It’s not great.
First off, thank you goes to YFBB of SB Nation’s Blog a Bull for transcribing a few quotes from all of this. To see the quotes in full, make sure you bookmark this page.
Now, for the task at hand: the mess that is the Chicago Bulls.
The Bulls were bad this season and rightfully deserved to miss the postseason. Nobody’s denying that. The problem has been trying to figure out where things went wrong other than adjusting to a new playing style and injuries.
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Well, the beat writers who work tirelessly to follow the teams from training camp until the end of the season may have given us some answers.
Simply put, the Bulls locker room was a disaster.
The main culprits of the locker room being an unpleasant place at times: Jimmy Butler … and Joakim Noah?
No, it wasn’t a “feud” between Butler and Derrick Rose.
It wasn’t Fred Hoiberg clashing with his roster.
From the sounds of things, it was the team’s new “leader” and the old leader bashing heads on more than one occasion this season.
"Why did Jimmy change? A lot of reasons. Part of it was the contract, part was seeing what it’s like when you are a star. He loved being in L.A. and that whole lifestyle. Nobody questioned his work ethic, they were questioning how he could function as the leader of the group. He wanted it to happen, it didn’t happen this year. This was before Noah’s injury, and there was friction. So many people focus on the Jimmy-Derrick relationship, but I don’t think [in terms of personal animosity] it was ever that bad. But there was a lot of tension between Jimmy and Jo. Jo wanted to always wanted to be the big brother, take care of everybody else. It started in the back-half of last year, Jimmy seeing he was becoming the best player on the team and wanted others to respect his voice more than in the past. I think Jo [dismissed it, seeing Jimmy as still a role player].(Nick Friedell on ESPN 1000, via Blog a Bull)"
The rather-infamous Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun-Times also had some … things … to say regarding the supposed clashing of Butler and Noah. Cowley spoke on 670 The Score in Chicago on the situation and from the sounds of things, it wasn’t pretty at times.
"I talked to several people that have indicated that the best thing that happened to the Bulls, because it could’ve wound up worse, was Joakim Noah going back to New York for his rehab and staying away from this thing. Because he would’ve become a locker room cancer. He had a couple veterans on his side, and I’m telling you right now: if he didn’t get out of town when he did, the little comments and snide remarks to Jimmy Butler…Jimmy wasn’t having any more of those, and you would’ve seen fists thrown.(Joe Cowley on Boers and Bernstein, April 14th, via Blog a Bull)"
When transcribing these interviews and quotes, YFBB also including a couple other nuggets into the fold:
- Back in November, Bulls.com’s Sam Smith mentioned that Jimmy Butler wasn’t a part of the team’s team-bonding trip in San Francisco.
- Daily Herald beat writer Mike McGraw mentioned how four of Butler’s closest influences — Adrian Griffin, Tom Thibodeau, Luol Deng and Ronnie Brewer — are all no longer with the Bulls organization.
Thoughts:
Well, even if only some of all of this is the truth, the Bulls still remain the league’s worst soap opera. A lot of times, this organization makes it look like the Sacramento Kings know what they’re doing. That’s how dramatic and annoying things can be when it comes to the rumors that circulate a big-market team that’s desperate for success.
Truthfully, there has to be some truth to all of these little reports and rumors. The Bulls went from title contender to the draft lottery in about as pathetic of a downfall as you could have as a team. Sure, the Bulls weren’t among the likes of Golden State, San Antonio and Cleveland, but they still found a way to beat all of those teams and then some.
It’s a shame that they couldn’t put it all together, but it’s starting to make sense as to why they couldn’t.
Plus, with Noah’s supposed involvement and Butler’s ascension to among the league’s best, the thought of “this town ain’t big enough for the two of us” is starting to come to mind. But, then there’s that report that the Bulls prefer Noah over Pau Gasol and want to mend the relationship with Noah.
Next: The Bulls had laundry list of issues this season, but E'Twaun Moore was not one of them
One thing’s for sure in the midst of these after-the-season rumors and stories, the Bulls have some serious problems that need to be addressed over the duration of this extended summer. It’s not just the personnel on the floor. It’s the inner-workings of the entire franchise that needs fixed.