The Chicago Bulls re-upped with Jimmy Butler on a five-year, max-level deal and the 25-year-old guard says, despite the rumors, there is absolutely no discord with star teammate Derrick Rose.
A report surfaced in May alleging that there was building tension between Butler and Rose, due to the former’s emergence as the Bulls’ primary offensive threat.
Butler also said there was no truth to a reported interest in signing a short-term contract with the Los Angeles Lakers.
Per ESPN:
“I think he’s always been supportive of me being aggressive, especially on offense,” Butler said. “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.”
Butler believes his relationship with Rose only became a storyline because of the way the Bulls ended their season, losing to the Cleveland Cavaliers in the second round of the playoffs after taking a 2-1 series lead. […] “The only reason that it came up is because we lost,” Butler said. “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.”
He said he doesn’t hang out with Rose much off the floor but doesn’t believe that matters much in regard to how he and his teammates play. […] “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.”
