D-Wade left Heat to play with Jimmy Butler, Chicago Bulls

Two notable former Chicago Bulls players, Jimmy Butler and Dwyane Wade, have both found more success with the Miami Heat than here.

In the midst of the final game of the second round of the playoffs, and the beginning of one of the conference finals series on the same night, there’s plenty of NBA action for Chicago Bulls fans to watch on Sep. 15 with their team long out of game action. The Eastern Conference Finals tip-off on the night of Sep. 15, between the five-seed Miami Heat and three-seed Boston Celtics.

And the final series of the second round of the playoffs in the Western Conference wraps up on the same night. The two-seed Los Angeles Clippers are looking to avoid the upset and collapse at the hands of the stingy three-seed Denver Nuggets tonight. The Nuggets won two straight to avoid elimination at the hands of the Clippers, and take this second round series to seven games.

One former Bulls player for the fans in Chicago to root for in the conference finals is star small forward Jimmy Butler, with the Heat. Butler spearheaded a surprise run for the Heat through the Eastern Conference side of the playoff bracket thus far, to the tune of a sweep of the Indiana Pacers and a five-game series route of the top-seeded Milwaukee Bucks.

And there is a lot of praise falling Butler’s way as he guides the Heat to the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time since 2014. The former Bulls star is taking the Heat to heights they haven’t been at since Dwyane Wade and LeBron James were leading the way in the early-to-mid 2010’s.

D-Wade is also a former Bulls player, and teammate of Butler’s. He opened up on when he was a teammate of Butler with the Bulls in a recent discussion with Fat Joe in Instagram Live. He mentioned in that interview that Butler was essentially the reason why he landed with the Bulls for the 2016-17 season.

Wade is also a Chicago native, and likely saw a lot of potential with this Bulls team when he was a teammate of Butler and veteran point guard Rajon Rondo.

There was some praise and honest takes that Wade had of Butler in a recent piece published on the Miami Herald this week. While he did have some kind words for Butler, Wade also mentioned that Butler “hasn’t changed a bit” since they were teammates in the Windy City three or four years ago.

Butler is in the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time in his NBA career to date. If the Heat can get through the Celtics in the East Finals, then Butler will get to move onto the NBA Finals for the first time in his career, and take on either the Los Angeles Lakers, or the winner of the Nuggets-Clippers second round playoff series.