The Chicago Bulls probably maxed out their potential by taking LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers close to the brink in the playoffs, but that’s not stopping people from searching for what “went wrong” with the Bulls. Chicago radio host Dan Bernstein believes he’s found the root of their ills. According to his anonymous “sources,” it’s a rift in the team’s backcourt between Derrick Rose and Jimmy Butler.
Rose was never asked directly why he disappeared when his team needed him most, but sources tell 670 The Score that a common NBA problem affected the Bulls at the worst possible time – two alpha dogs and only one basketball.
Bernstein mentions Rose’s lackadaisical play in the final three quarters of their blowout Game 6 loss to the Cavs as mounting evidence of his discontent with the situation and his teammate. Never once citing the Cavs’ stellar defense, Chicago’s general malaise on the offensive end of the floor, or the injuries that plagued Rose and several other Bulls players during the series. Only the alleged issues between Chicago’s talented backcourt.
Sources describe a passive-aggressive reaction from Rose that was the culmination of tensions building in recent weeks with Butler’s emergence as a primary scorer. Butler is very aware that he won his bet on himself and is poised to reap the reward of a maximum contract from the Bulls, whether or not it takes an offer sheet from another club in restricted free agency this summer. Butler’s emergence was validated by the NBA’s Most Improved Player Award, and he’s now feeling every bit the star, with all that entails.
Again, note the first word of that paragraph is the problematic “sources.” It’s not that Bernstein is outright lying; it’s likely that somebody did feed him this information. It’s that the source of this speculation remains anonymous. Incognito sourcing has become the crutch of sports reporting on the internet. In a 24-hour news cycle era, where reporters and media members pass off innuendo, hearsay and rumor as fact is an effort to get more clicks (we still write about it, but try and temper any conclusive finding until someone goes on the freakin’ record).
Nothing Rose or Butler has said or done offers any evidence there are issues between the All-Star duo; they simply played hard and probably maximized their team’s potential against the best player in basketball. Whether there actually is a beef over the alpha dog role is anybody’s guess, but anonymous sources definitely don’t equal anything close to proof of a schism, just proof of the fact that headlines now surmount facts. Maybe there is a growing animosity between the two guards, but we highly doubt it, and we don’t see it affecting Jimmy’s upcoming restricted free agency or either’s future as the long-term backcourt in Chicago.
(Via CBS Chicago)
