Chicago Bulls star Jimmy Butler has officially been named to Team USA, kicking off his summer and hopefully a fresh beginning moving forward.
Chicago Bulls forward Jimmy Butler has had what one could call a rough year.
Sure things may have looked good on paper. After all, he started off the season by re-signing with the team on a five-year, $95 million contract. Went on to break Michael Jordan’s record for most points in a half with 40. Scored a career-high 53 points in a game.
Recorded his first career triple-double (28 points, 17 rebounds, 12 assists). Was voted to the All-Star Team as a reserve. And overall averaged 20.9 points, 5.3 rebounds and 4.8 assists per contest, on the year.
But in reality, Butler certainly faced his fair share of bumps in the road.
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For one, right off of the bat he suffered after former head coach Tom Thibodeau was given the boot; the 26-year-old did not seem to thrive under the leadership of newly appointed head coach Fred Hoiberg, calling him out in the media for being too soft.
"“I believe in the guys in this locker room, yeah. But I also believe in … we probably have to be coached a lot harder at times. I’m sorry. I know Fred’s a laid-back guy, and I respect him for that. But when guys aren’t doing what they’re supposed to do, you’ve got to get on guys. Myself included. You’ve gotta do what you’re supposed to do when you’re out there playing basketball.”"
Then of course there were the on-going rumors of Butler and former teammate Derrick Rose not getting along, which seemingly took a toll on him:
"“C’mon, man. That [expletive] always comes up when people lose. I’m tired of talking about that [expletive].”"
The Bulls star also fell victim to injury this season, first keeping him out for 11 games and then subsequently another three.
And as if not making the postseason was not enough of a sour note to end the year on, when it was all said and done, Butler was labeled a diva; according team reporter Sam Smith, the young buck has a “colossal ego” and does not care who knows it.
"“He’s really kind of full of himself. He hangs around with Mark Wahlberg, the actor, and lets us know about that a lot. He goes around to premiers or whatever. He announced before the season that he’s the leader of the team and guys are looking around going, ‘What are you talking about?’ It’s a really weird dynamic. He doesn’t like to socialize with the other players. Back in November they had a team bonding thing. They all chartered a bus and went up to wine country for the day. The only one who didn’t go was Jimmy.”"
Therefore, many members of the media and Chicago fans alike assumed he would seek a trade this summer, and that the organization would gladly see him go. And for a while, that seemed to be the case.
The trade rumor mill was spinning with possible scenarios, including Butler heading off to Hollywood to join the Los Angeles Lakers.
But then Rose was traded to the New York Knicks.
And general manager Gar Forman told the media he had no plans of shopping Butler around (never mind the deals he was supposedly trying to make with both the Boston Celtics and ironically the Minnesota Timberwolves, on draft night …).
"“We have never made a call in regards to Jimmy Butler. We’ve talked about, we value Jimmy Butler, we’re very happy to have Jimmy Butler. We’ve got a phenomenal basketball player who was an All-Star and All-NBA defender, is still young, obviously we’ve got him under contract long-term, those are all positive. He, again, is what we want to be. We’ve said this all along. We like Jimmy Butler, we did not shop Jimmy Butler. Did we receive calls? Of course we did, and that’s our job to listen to calls. We get calls on a lot of our players and that’s stuff that happens all throughout the league.”"
So at least for now, it seems Butler will be moving forward with the Bulls. Hopefully by starting fresh, and letting bygones be bygones.
And what better way to kick off said new beginning than representing Team USA in the Olympics this summer? Monday morning, Butler was officially named to the Olympic team, along with 11 other NBA players.
https://twitter.com/JimmyButler/status/747418659006615552?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
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Here is to Team USA, to Jimmy Butler and to the Chicago Bulls. May they all be successful moving forward.