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Chicago Bulls: Cristiano Felicio admits Twitter trolls “bother him”

By Andrew Miller

CHICAGO, IL - FEBRUARY 23: Cristiano Felicio #6 of the Chicago Bulls arrives to the game against the Boston Celtics on February 23, 2019 at United Center in Chicago, Illinois. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2019 NBAE (Photo by Jeff Haynes/NBAE via Getty Images)
CHICAGO, IL - FEBRUARY 23: Cristiano Felicio #6 of the Chicago Bulls arrives to the game against the Boston Celtics on February 23, 2019 at United Center in Chicago, Illinois. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2019 NBAE (Photo by Jeff Haynes/NBAE via Getty Images) /
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The Chicago Bulls are trying to head into the off-season on the right foot, and big man Cristiano Felicio spoke out after a recent big performance.

The off-the-court distractions for the Chicago Bulls this season were minimal outside of one big issue, but there is always some outside noise that tends to bother players. The Chicago Bulls did have a lot of drama off-the-court after the transition between former head coach Fred Hoiberg and current head coach Jim Boylen took place.

However, the Chicago Bulls have a lot to work on in general this off-season. Blocking out some of the outside noise is important for this locker room to start heading in the right direction and develop blinders to voices that are counteractive to finding success.

Especially with the situation that the Chicago Bulls deep rotational center Cristiano Felicio found himself in this season, letting outside noise distract him is one of the worse things possible. Felicio has a lot to improve upon to prove his worth to staying in the NBA in general, let alone getting in the good graces of this fan base.

Now, Twitter can be hard enough on players like Felicio over the course of the long 82-game regular season. Players know that this shouldn’t be a factor that bothers them, but this can be a very different thing to deal with. When Felicio is having the on-the-court issues that plagued him so far this season, it’s tends to be difficult for him to keep focus on progression.

In a recent interview with the Chicago Tribune, Feicio told Chicago Bulls reporter K.C. Johnson that he used to let some “Twitter trolls and outside noise bother him”. He also recognized in that same conversation that he is “roughly one of 450 players in the NBA and they’re not”.

The latter is a much better perspective for Felicio to roll with moving forward. “Outside noise” is not something that should bother players night in and night out. That is something that every player in a big-market team like the Chicago Bulls gets to deal with. Felicio is not the only one.

Yet, Felicio does have plenty to work on after some of the numbers he posted this season. He’s averaging 3.8 points per game, 3.2 rebounds, and 0.5 assists. He’s one of the deeper players in the rotation and doesn’t look to have much of a future in the Windy City.

It is impressive that Felicio is doing alright in the win shares department. But, his numbers of value over a replacement player (-0.2) and box plus/minus (-3.4) start to show the real story during his time with the Chicago Bulls this season.

Felicio is posting a player efficiency rating above 14.0, but that doesn’t seem to get the fan base on board at all. At this point of the regular season for the Bulls, all we can do is watch and see what happens with Felicio and the rest of the deeper part of the rotation.

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