Jimmy Butler thought he’d never leave the Chicago Bulls

The thought of former Chicago Bulls star wing Jimmy Butler still being around in the Windy City would be great in the mind of the fans.

At this point in time, letting star small forward Jimmy Butler go to the Minnesota Timberwolves three years ago looks like a pretty bad move for the Chicago Bulls. Back during the 2017 offseason, the Bulls sent Butler off to the Timberwolves in a deal that landed them power forward Lauri Markkanen, shooting guard Zach LaVine, and point guard Kris Dunn. That was the move that officially triggered the start of the rebuild.

And the rebuild hasn’t really gone as planned to date for the Bulls. In the current season, Butler is leading the Miami Heat to a potential second round playoff upset of the top-seeded Milwaukee Bucks and the Bulls were well outside of the playoff picture in the Eastern Conference at the pause.

The hindsight can always be 20/20 when looking back at when the Bulls parted ways with any star. It just so happens that letting go of Butler now doesn’t look too great. But there was apparently a time when Butler thought he wanted to be in Chicago over the long haul.

According to an interview Butler did recently, he thought he would “never” leave Chicago. He started out his career with the Bulls, and that’s still where he’s played the majority of his years in the NBA to date. The point where Butler left the Bulls is where it seemed to finally be a wake up call for Butler that the NBA is a business more so than it is friendly.

Here’s more on what Butler had to say in this part of the interview.

"There’s this one player who played here, Dwyane Wade, he had a hell of a career here. He always told me the culture, the way that they work here, it’s you in every single way. Well, I never thought I’d leave Chicago. Then I realized this is a business and I ended up leaving to two other stops. It didn’t work out in Philly. But when I got here I could do nothing but smile, because of the way everyone talks to each other, the way everything is laid out on the table, you come in and work and then we have fun. This is the reason I play the game. These guys are like me in so many ways that I absolutely love being here, to compete with and for these guys. I’m having so much fun."

He specifically mentioned the long-time Heat shooting guard Dwyane Wade as one of the players that helped mentor him with the Bulls and show him how things worked in the NBA. He played one season with D-Wade with the Bulls, back during the 2016-17 campaign.

That one year where Wade and Butler were teammates was also the last for the latter of the two playing in the Windy City.

During his six season run with the Bulls at the outset of his NBA career, Butler averaged 15.6 points per game, 4.8 rebounds, 3.1 assists, 1.5 steals, and 0.5 blocks. He really started to hit his stride during the 2014-15 season, which sparked four straight years of All-Star selections for Butler. He’s now played with the Timberwolves, Philadelphia 76ers, and the Heat (his current team) since departing from the Bulls during the 2017 offseason.