For the past couple of years now there has been a sense of Jimmy Butler and Derrick Rose not having the best of relationships. Some wondering if there’s a rift between them.
Now I see why people make the accusations. They’re clearly both very driven, their games are polar opposites. Butler is defensive minded and grounded. Derrick Rose is offensive minded and always throws caution in the wind.
I’ve said before that Butler is the Bulls’ most important player. Rose may get the publicity but when push comes to shove, Butler does much more for the team. There has been some games where Rose hindered the team. Yes I said it. So are statements like the one I just made the reason why people are making these assumptions? Maybe. But regardless, Butler refutes it all.
“I think he’s always been supportive of me being aggressive, especially on offense,” Butler said on ESPN’s “First Take” on Wednesday. “We all know that I’ll be the aggressor on defense. So from what I can tell, the guy’s always been in my corner.”
“I don’t think we have any beef or whatever you want to call it. I think we just want to win. We didn’t win, so now [people say] we’re beefing, now we have a problem with each other, and I don’t think that’s the case.“
During the ESPYs celebrations. Butler was a guest on Cari Champion’s “Be Honest” and when I listened to it, I got the feeling that he was sort of bending the truth a little.
“Probably not as much,” he said of hanging with Rose off the floor. “But I don’t think that that’s a problem. He has his family, I got my guys with me all the time. So we spend so much time with each other if we’re traveling on the plane, we’re practicing, we’re watching film, we’re playing in a game. That’s a lot of time to be around your team. So off the floor, you say hello, you might hang out every once in a while. But I think everybody goes their separate ways, unless you’re like rookies and you don’t got anything else to do. Y’all hang out with each other, but everybody kind of got their group with them.“
I will leave you to form your own conclusions on that one.
