Though Jimmy Butler and Nikola Mirotic are teammates and good buddies on the Chicago Bulls, they are heated rivals when it comes to international play. Spain has been the U.S.’s biggest challenger in recent years, and on Friday, they had yet another showdown in the semifinal round of the Rio Olympics.
Prior to that, however, the Bulls teammates engaged in a little friendly trash talk on Instagram.
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Though the Spaniards fought tooth and nail the entire game, the Americans ultimately emerged victorious and will move on to the gold medal game on Sunday to face the winner of the other semifinal match-up between Australia and Serbia.
Hilariously, neither Butler nor Mirotic were much of a factor in that contest. Mirotic got into foul trouble early and was mostly a non-factor, finishing with seven points on 1-of-4 shooting from downtown. Butler gets the bragging rights in this scenario, but he laid a giant egg in that game, going 0-of-5 from the field and scoring zero points in 14 minutes of action.
Once the Olympics are over, they can both turn their attention to leading a newly-revamped Bulls roster — which now includes Dwyane Wade and is minus Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah — back to the playoffs next season.
