Recently someone asked me who I was rooting for in the NBA finals between the Miami Heat and the Denver Nuggets. It was an easy answer, not even thinking about it, as I said the Nuggets, a team that is seeking its first NBA Championship. Why not? The Heat… I still have that bad taste in my mouth from Lebron James and the decision to combine forces with Dwayne Wade as they recruited Chris Bosch to form an instant powerhouse in the NBA. The person who asked me the question said he was rooting for the Heat because of Jimmy Buckets. Former Chicago Bull, Jimmy Butler, is an NBA superstar who now has the Heat in the finals. Butler is the number 1 guy on the Heat. The Bulls have been still looking for their number one guy since the team traded Butler to the Minnesota Timberwolves for Zach LaVine, and others that are not even on the teams roster presently.

Jimmy Butler was a first round draft pick in 2011 for the Chicago Bulls. Butler had to earn his stripes as his career started off as a bench guy until his motivation earned him playing time, which he took advantage of. The Bulls Head Coach at the time, Tom Thibodeau, was a guy that helped Butler improve his game as the talent was there. Just unleashing it took some time. When Butler arrived, the Bulls did not know what to do with him as it was the Derek Rose show back then. Rose and the Bulls struggled in a playoff elimination game against the Heat, but Butler found his groove that day even though the game was out of reach. At that point, the Bulls should have realized they had something special in the works – a guy that can take the team on his back. A guy that can create his own shot. These were the Bulls and they ran the organization at the time like a lemonade stand. John Paxson and Gar Foreman were dumb and dumber. They fired Thibodeau because he always had the foot on the gas petal as he would be the one they blamed for burning out Rose. After Thibs left town, the team made a stupid hire in Fred Hoiberg, a former player for the Bulls and a guy who coached Iowa State. Hoiberg had the Cyclones to the tournament with a decent seed a few years in a row only to quickly be dispatched by the underdog team at the time. Butler would tell Freddie to, “coach harder.” The Bulls would low ball Butler with a very laughable contract offer. Thibodeau probably helped Jimmy stay in Chicago as both sides worked out a deal. The Bulls knew they would have to pay Butler big money at some point. For the Bulls at the time, the locker room & the front office were just a toxic place to be. The Bulls then would send Butler to the Timberwolves in a trade. At the time, both parties would have a new beginning. You can see how well that worked out.

Jimmy Butler had a rocky road in Minnesota as the Timberwolves would send him packing to Philadelphia. The Bulls probably patted themselves on the back as Butler was looking like a locker room cancer. In the 2019-20 season, Butler found a new home in Miami where he’s been every since. Butler, like Michael Jordan, remembers everything. Especially all these organizations have done to him. Butler this season has been averaging 22.9 points per game with 5.9 rebounds and dishing out assists at an average of 5.3 per game. This post-season in 17 games, Butler has been averaging 28.5 points per game with 7 rebounds per contest while dishing out 5.9 assists per game. The Heat led by Butler knocked out the Bulls in the play in game which seems like an eternity ago. Butler and the Heat knocked out a juggernaut Milwaukee Bucks team in the first round. Then the Heat took down the Knicks in the next round followed by the Celtics in the Eastern conference championship. Talk about taking down all the historical basketball big boys in your route to the championships.

I don’t know if the Bulls would have been better off keeping Jimmy Butler and building around him. They tried once by bringing in Dwayne Wade and Rajon Rondo, two veterans on their last legs. My question is why would you trade away a guy you drafted who had that Michael Jordan style of motivation and every season elevated his game? It’s typical fashion in Chicago sports which gets exhausting dealing with the stupid that run the Windy City sporting landscape. Usually boils down to penny pinching owners who charge you ten dollars for a beer. I know I do not have any stake in the NBA finals. The NBA game in general is just hard to watch with the no-calls for traveling. Soft defenses. The movement of superstars from team to team. The Bulls took Arturas Karnisovas from the Nuggets front office and made him the President of Basketball Operations a few seasons ago. Could the Bulls be onto something with that high ceiling type of move? Would Jimmy Butler winning a championship put egg on the faces of Jerry Reinsdorf, the Bulls CEO, and John Paxson, head custodian at the United Center. Or can you just chalk this up to old news about which many Chicago fans don’t really care because it will continue to happen as we are used to their way of running things.