NBA Rumors: Marco Belinelli was surprised Chicago Bulls didn’t offer him contract
By Josh Hill
The Chicago Bulls have a habit of putting together really good and solid teams and then dumping them when they don’t want to pay for them anymore. Chicago decided to not pay the Bench Mob after the 2011-12 season an gutted one of the best benched in basketball. They gave the same treatment to the lesser version of the Bench Mob in 2012-13 and got rid of some players that have since been productive.
One of those guys is three-point wizard Marco Belinelli, who is going to be participating in All-Star weekend festivities for the San Antonio Spurs. Belinelli recently spoke about his time in Chicago and noted he was surprised the team never even offered him a new contract.
"“I was almost sure, 100 percent, that Chicago was [going to] offer me good money, good [years],” Belinelli said. “But the NBA is a business. I got a little bit of offers from other teams and when San Antonio called me I didn’t think too much, honestly. Having a team that really wanted to win a championship and I can really improve my game, so I think I [made] a really good decision to come here and try to be a better player. Play with great players that know how to win championship and a great coach like Pop.”"
It’s clear that Belinelli wanted to stay with the Bulls, but that just wasn’t in the cards. He’s now gone on to have one of his finer seasons while the Bulls continue to be a painfully mediocre team in the East.