Jimmy Butler dismisses trade rumors, wants to stay in Chicago
Chicago Bulls forward Jimmy Butler dismissed recent trade rumors surrounding him and reiterated he wants to stay in Chicago.
The Chicago Bulls were supposed to find themselves again this season under new head coach Fred Hoiberg. Instead, it’s been one giant disaster after the other and the Bulls are on the verge of missing the playoffs and having some serious questions about the future of the franchise.
Last year at this time, Jimmy Butler had emerged as the new superstar for the Bulls and it looked like he would be the man that would carry the team to the next step and take them to an NBA Finals. While Butler has been very good this year, the rest of the team has gone south and there have been plenty of questions about the future of Butler with the Bulls, after he had just signed an extension with the team over the summer.
The rumors all began, when Yahoo’s Chris Mannix reported that the Bulls have “legitimate interest” in trading Butler during the summer. However, Butler is dismissing those rumors about him and he wants to stay in Chicago.
After the Bulls defeated the Houston Rockets, Butler told ESPN about his desire to wear a Bulls uniform.
"“I don’t plan on going anywhere. I can’t control what everybody else does. I know that this is the city that I love, Chicago. And I want to wear that jersey. I want to wear that name on the front, and I wear it proudly. All I got to do is continue to control what I can control. That’s try to help this team win games.”"
While that certainly doesn’t mean that there isn’t any truth to the Bulls wanting to move him, it’s clear that Butler wants to remain with Chicago. They should want to keep him as well. Derrick Rose is getting older and will be a free agent after next season and Pau Gasol will be a free agent this year.
If they have to go into some downtime and rebuild, it would be better with a piece like Butler on the team that could attract other players to Chicago.
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