With the deadline to sign players to contract extensions fast approaching the Bulls had a decision to make in regards to Taj Gibson, their promising young power forward, and in the end decided that they would run with Taj for the future. Chicago locked up Gibson for the next four-years in a deal worth $38 million. The player was not confident in getting a deal done but in the end said he was happy it worked out.
“I looked at the numbers,” Gibson said. “That’s a lot of money. I can’t really turn down that much money. Especially for the security, you never know what can happen all through the year. You just do want to see what else is out there (in the free-agency market), but then you look (and think) you don’t want to be in some hell hole somewhere just chasing the bucks. It’s a great team here, family, organization. I just made a decision that would help me and my family.
“At the end of the day, I asked my agent (Mark Bartelstein), ‘What do you think?’ ‘Don’t give me the bullcrap, just be real with me,’ and he was real with me. He said, ‘I don’t want you to turn this down.’ He said, ‘I know we can probably get more this summer, but it’s all about if you’re happy or not.’ And he said, ‘I want you to take this; it’s too much of a risk to go out there, you never know what can happen.’ ”
