Jimmy Butler Calls Relationship With Bulls Front Office 'Good' Amid Report Of 'Animosity' Between Sides
(CBS) Bulls star Jimmy Butler on Wednesday called his relationship with Bulls executives John Paxson and Gar Forman "good" following a report that cited "incredible animosity" between the sides stemming from the negotiations and discourse in the season prior to Butler signing his maximum deal in July 2015.
Around the time Butler needed to make a decision in late October 2014 on whether to accept the Bulls' four-year extension offer worth around $11 million annually coming off his rookie deal or choose to enter restricted free agency, a member of Chicago's front office threatened that the team would give more of his minutes to reserve Tony Snell so as to depress Butler's production, leverage and market value the following summer, ESPN's Ryen Russillo said on "Mike & Mike" on Tuesday.
Butler neither confirmed nor denied that report when asked about it at the Bulls' shootaround Wednesday ahead of the evening's game against the Thunder in Oklahoma City. Butler rejected the Bulls' initial offer, then went on to sign a five-year, $92.3-million deal in July 2015 after a breakout season in which he was named the league's Most Improved Player.
"That (stuff) happened so long ago I didn't think it was a matter of anything," Butler said, according to ESPN.com. "We went into contract negotiations. I said I would hoop and play the year out. I did that, had a decent little year. We won't go into detail about what was said, what wasn't said, it's not anybody's business. We got a deal done, I thought it was a fair deal. That's that. But for anybody to say this or say that ... I don't know, to tell you the truth, I don't remember what went on. My agent was in there handling the majority of it. And then, my main thing was to just worry about basketball so I can't tell you what was said or what wasn't. One, because it was so long ago, and two because it ain't y'all business anyways."
