The drama surrounding the Bulls this offseason has largely focused on their backcourt. That’s because former MVP Derrick Rose and current All-Star Jimmy Butler are on seemingly divergent paths in the NBA. Rose’s decline — largely as a result of injury — juxtaposes Jimmy’s ascension to one of the top wingmen in the NBA. So talks of a beef were bound to occur. And occur they did.
First, a Chicago radio host reported that anonymous sources saying Derrick had a “passive-aggressive” reaction to Butler’s All-Star performance last season. And things just snowballed from there.
Parsing Butler’s — largely innocuous — language later in the offseason, it seemed like there actually was some tension beneath the surface of their on-court partnership. Things got worse when Butler casually let slip that they’re not so close off the court. They don’t have to be, obviously, but in Chicago, it acted as an embalming agent for the still unsubstantiated story where no one would go on the record.
Later, Butler reiterated there was no beef, but all of a sudden Butler’s words were cast as a guilty man proclaiming his innocence. Then, a source told Joe Cowley of the Sun-Times that Butler didn’t respect Rose’s work ethic. Finally, on media day, Rose blamed race for the storyline, which is complicated and probably wrong, but only in a color-blind vacuum. Unfortunately, America is nowhere near that color blindness.
Now that you’re caught up, try this on for size: After Butler’s breakout 2014-15 season, Rose actually bought him a designer watch “with a price tag college-tuition-paying parents would recognize.”
Ubiquitous Bulls beat reporter K.C. Johnson has the background story for the Chicago Tribune (subscription only). Earlier last month, Rose presented Butler with the gift. It was to commemorate Butler’s breakout year, where he made his first All-Star Team and was named the NBA’s Most Improved Player.
When asked why he bought the gift by Johnson, the normally reserved Rose reportedly turned serious before offering up an explanation.
…pressed further about why he did this, Rose suddenly turns stone-cold serious, bordering on emotional.
“I’m a veteran now. You’re supposed to spoil your teammates. And Jimmy deserved it,” Rose said in an interview with the Tribune. “That’s just like me getting doughnuts for the plane and for the buses and for trips. Just trying to do something, let everyone know I’m in it to win it all. We have to have that bond.”
Told that this gesture might fly in the face of the Rose-Butler feud narrative, Rose smiled.
“That’s so far from the truth. We don’t even talk about it,” Rose said. “It’s people just nitpicking our team, trying to start something. I look at Jimmy like a little brother. I wish him nothing but the best. I encourage him every time he’s in the game and want him to have that confidence like he has.”
We can all hope this is the end of the story, but a designer watch won’t squash the anonymous reports. Jimmy and D-Rose play in Chicago, one of the largest media markets in the NBA. They’re also in the same backcourt together, and their divergent career paths over the last three years is tailor-made for a story of enmity. Hopefully they’ll continue to ignore any anonymous reports of acrimony whenever they surface. Remember, they “have to have that bond.” All they can do is play basketball, and hope the nonsense evaporates as quickly as it bubbled to the surface.
It’s either that or actually starting to beef, which doesn’t look like it’s happening anytime soon.
