Yesterday, after the Chicago Bulls’ most recent loss (a 119-114 loss to the Atlanta Hawks), Jimmy Butler and Dwyane Wade essentially tore their teammates to shreds before the media. Both players basically said that the two of them are the only ones putting in enough effort, and the rest of the team doesn’t care enough. This is clearly not the right way to foster positive team chemistry, and Rajon Rondo – who has experienced being a part of a very close-knit team (Ubuntu!) – took to Instagram to weigh in, as you can see above.
Rondo calls out Wade and Butler for taking their frustrations to the media rather than dealing with their issues internally. When Rondo refers to “his vets,” he means the two in the photo with him – Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett. That Celtics team was more or less a family, and Rondo is correct in that Pierce or Garnett would never bash their entire team when speaking to reporters.
Rondo has a reputation as a hard-headed, stubborn, uncoachable player. As he wrote, though, he has never had the reputation of being a bad teammate. Wherever he goes, no matter how many issues he has, his teammates rave about how superb a teammate and leader he is. Even in Chicago, where Rondo has performed inadequately and has been benched, Taj Gibson has extolled Rondo’s abilities as a teammate and leader to the media on multiple occasions.
Butler and Wade are frustrated, and that’s understandable. This was not the ideal way to deal with it, though.
