long time guy wrote:
ZephMarshack wrote:
long time guy wrote:
Before we dismiss Smith for the team mouthpiece that he is, a question must be asked. If guys like he and K.C. Johnson don't she'd light on this who will? Joe Cowley? Forget it. He has his face so far up Butler and Thibs ass they could probably commit a brinks truck robbery and he'd find a way to blame Bulls management.
Sure Bulls management leaks stuff to these guys. But they do it because they know it is guaranteed to be reported. It's obvious that Jimmy Butler sought to undermine Hoiberg. He made a miscalculation with regards to capital. He is the best player on a team that missed the playoffs. He also came up rather small in games that determined whether the Bulls would make the playoffs or not. If Paxson wants to call him on it or trade him because of it shouldn't be of much concern, because Butler brought it on himself. He did it both in word and in deed.
Uh Cowley is the one who said Butler and Noah were on the verge of throwing hands this season (and that the start of the rift came last year when he viewed the preferential treatment Rose and Noah themselves received at the behest of the front office as unacceptable). Mike McGraw said specifically that Butler and Gar hate each other. It's not just Smith reporting anything which is an indication both that yes Butler may have been a problem and that these guys are getting enough info that it's in line with the usual way the children in the front office conduct themselves.
You just illustrated my point. Cowley always tells the story from the lens of Jimmy Butler or Thibs. "The preferential treatment of Noah or Rose". Which writer was the one pushing the Rose/Butler rift? Cowley. I could go up and down the past 2 years and find a number of puff piece Butler articles written by Cowley.
Again, stories putting Butler in a bad light have been pushed by all the usual Bulls suspects, not just Cowley. Which like I said indicates he probably was a dick at various points this year but which also indicates an agenda.
Quote:
While other outlets last week were pushing Bulls players annoyance about the Preferential treatment received by Butler, Cowley was busy writing yet another article about how this is "Butler's team". Who cares whose team it is? They missed the damn playoffs.
I care to the extent that if the Bulls need change in the locker room I'd probably side with the guy who's still actually a useful piece. If you're siding with Noah, Rose, and Dunleavy, you may as well just announce you're going the Hinkie route. Butler was far and away the best Bulls player this season, regardless of how he may have felt about Hoiberg's system and regardless of how poorly he played when he came back from injury down the stretch.
But taking sides in disputes between players is, as I've been saying all along, an utter red herring to distract from the massive failure of John Paxson and Gar Forman and to soften fans up in the event they decide to trade their one player worth a damn.
Paxson isn't taking sides between players. Paxson is siding with Hoiberg. Whether he should or not is open for debate. Jimmy Butler calling out guys on his team doesn't make for a good teammate. He did it in the press and it was wrong. He continued to undermine Hoiberg on the court also. It was obvious to many though not apparently on this site that the guy plays Iso ball and doesn't attempt to run Hoiberg's offense. He also publicly hinted that he wasn't going to play unless he was allowed to run the point. He also stated that he does what he wants to do and Hoiberg cant make him do anything because after all, he is a grown man. I wonder what the reaction would have been if Derrick Rose had made such statements?
Its not about hating on Butler. It's really about the blatant hypocrisy at work here. The guy is showing himself to be a malcontent and a bad actor. Yes he works hard, but that doesn't give him carte blanche to show up teammates and coaches. That is no different than a straight "A" student that feels that he/she has a right to disrupt the class simply because he/she gets straight "A's" and completes all of their assignments.