Some Chicago Bulls mad Jimmy Butler gets preferential treatment

The Chicago Bulls were awful during the NBA regular season and some members of the team are reportedly upset at preferential treatment given to Jimmy Butler.

It’s fair to say the decision made by John Paxson and Gar Forman to fire former head coach Tom Thibodeau could be the worst decision made in recent franchise history.

The Chicago Bulls were a perennial Eastern Conference contender under the watch of Thibodeau despite serious injuries to former NBA MVP Derrick Rose over the last three years, but without him, the Bulls couldn’t even make the playoffs.

First-year head coach Fred Hoiberg may be in hot water for the team’s win-loss record and the front office should be for the mess they’ve created, which includes in-fighting over All-Star guard Jimmy Butler receiving preferential treatment, according to ESPN’s Chris Broussard.

After the Bulls Monday night win, Butler flew separately from his teammates because of a family commitment, but that irked at least one starter on the Bulls who thought it was a sign of the bigger picture that Butler is dividing the locker room.

Dan Feldman of NBC Sports’ Pro Basketball Talk transcribed Broussard’s comments and some are pretty alarming.

“Some players, and I’m not saying it wasn’t a family commitment, but there were some – I know at least one player in particular, a starter – who felt like he was a bit bothered by the fact that Jimmy wasn’t on the plane. And it was a misperception. He felt it was emblematic of a little bit of the preferential treatment that a lot of people say Butler’s been getting now that he’s emerged as the best player on the Bulls from the front office and things like that.”

Butler signed a max contract extension in the offseason after emerging as one of the better two-way players in the NBA but it would seem his ego has inflated just as much as his bank account. With Thibodeau no longer in the picture, Butler has full reign with a college coach on the bench, and may feel he can run the show.

“There’s a division. There’s all types of dysfunction in Chicago. There’s kind of a division in that locker room.The younger players see Butler as the leader. He’s clearly been their best player the last two years. They see him as the leader. The other guys, the veterans who’ve been there, it’s not so much of disrespect of Jimmy, but they don’t see him as the team as the team leader. They remember when you were averaging two points a game.”

It’s one thing to be the best player on the team and it’s another to be the leader. From Pau Gasol to Derrick Rose to the injured Joakim Noah, all three of those players consider themselves leaders in some capacity, but with injuries and losses mounting it would appear the Bulls just lost track of who they are on and off the court.

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