Per Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun-Times, the Chicago Bulls convinced star swingman Jimmy Butler to sign a contract extension in ways that were… unconventional, and perhaps a bit shady:
According to [ESPN Radio personality Ryan] Russillo, “[A member of the] front office went to Jimmy Butler and said ‘if you don’t sign this extension, we’re going to play Tony Snell over you. We are going to give you his minutes and that’s going to drop your minutes and numbers down.’ ”
So basically, Russillo is saying that the Bulls were telling Butler that they would lower his value to ensure that he would get less money once he hit free agency. Butler was asked about this, and neither confirmed nor denied the report – saying that he didn’t remember:
“I’ll tell it to you like this,’’ Butler said. “That [bleep] happened so long ago I didn’t think it was a matter of anything. We went into contract negotiations. I said I would hoop and play the year out. I did that, had a decent little year. We won’t go into detail about what was said, what wasn’t said, it’s not anybody’s business. We got a deal done, I thought it was a fair deal. That’s that.
“But for anybody to say this or say that … I don’t know. To tell you the truth, I don’t remember what went on. My agent was in there handling the majority of it. And then, my main thing was to just worry about basketball so I can’t tell you what was said or what wasn’t. One, because it was so long ago, and two because it ain’t y’all business anyways.’’
If we believe Russillo, then this is rather shocking. Butler signed his contract extension the summer following the 2014-15 season. Tony Snell had just finished his second season, in which he averaged six points a game.
Butler, on the other hand, had just come off of a breakout season, in which he made the first All-Star Team of his career, and averaged 20 points and 5.8 rebounds per game. He had established himself as a star, and was clearly better than Snell in every aspect. Would the Bulls really have threatened to actively make their team worse by benching their up-and-coming star?
Another report that surfaced today claims that the Bulls players fear that the management is spying on their talk through the coaching staff. This organization is a disaster right now.
