Bulls say they have no hard feelings toward D-Wade before reunion

By Joe Cowley

Now it’s simply considered “a mishap.’’

When Dwyane Wade and Jimmy Butler publicly spoke out last January about a lack of effort and too many teammates accepting losing, the Bulls’ front office didn’t handle it like a mishap.

It responded with fines and a benching, and Rajon Rondo attacked Wade and Butler on his Instagram account. The leadership qualities of Wade and Butler came under scrutiny. Some of the Bulls’ younger players were still angry with Wade after a team meeting because he had singled out the youngsters.

It’s amazing what eight months and a change of address can do.

Many of those young Bulls are set to play against Wade and the Cavaliers on Tuesday. On Monday, Wade was added to the Cavs’ starting lineup.

“I don’t feel like we had a problem with [Wade],’’ Bulls forward Bobby Portis said Monday. “We just had a little mishap during the season last year. I feel like all the teams have a little trouble during the season, but ours was boosted a little more. But we don’t have any problems with him.

“After the Bulls and D-Wade parted ways, he texted me personally, and we talked. Everything is cool, and everything is cool with that. It wasn’t that we didn’t like him. It was just that we had our troubles during the season.’’

Forward Nikola Mirotic defended Wade and Butler during the summer, and his stance hasn’t changed.

“We never had any conflict with Dwyane,’’ Mirotic said. “Just after that game, they had some tough declarations, Jimmy and D-Wade. But that was all. It’s a part of the game. They were hot. There was disappointment about the game. We all understand. But inside the locker room and in the practices, they were terrific with us. So there’s nothing to complain about.’’

If anything, Butler and Wade should be the ones complaining. They thought the front office overreacted and hindered their leadership capabilities the rest of the season.

Butler was very open about that in an interview with the Sun-Times this past summer.

“I just think they made it tough to be yourself [by doing that], to be who you are and express yourself the way you want to express yourself,’’ said Butler, who was traded to the Timberwolves in August. “There’s no reason for disliking a guy for speaking the truth.’’

Coach Fred Hoiberg wouldn’t say if he had any regrets about how the situation was handled by the front office, but he seemed to appreciate the outburst in retrospect.

“It forced everyone to get in a room and be honest with each other,’’ Hoiberg said. “Really, it got us, in my opinion, playing better. It happened, it got us in that room for a long session, and we hashed a lot of things out, and we were better because of it.

“I talked to a couple of coaches about it who said, ‘At least your guys are in there talking about it. Our guys won’t say anything to each other.’ Maybe it needed to happen, and I thought we were better because of it and finished the season playing our best basketball of the year.’’

Follow me on Twitter @suntimes_hoops.

Email: jcowley@suntimes.com