The Bernstein Brief: Blown-Up Bulls Still Annoying
By Dan Bernstein--
CBSChicago.com senior columnist
(CBS) Leave it to that Bulls team to continue to be bothersome despite ceasing to exist.
It's a ghost that still haunts, with Jimmy Butler rattling chains now from Minnesota or Los Angeles or wherever he is, and Dwyane Wade still on the roster while making it clear he would prefer not to be. An ESPN report alleged that young players on the Bulls "really can't stand" Wade, and Fox Sports reported that he and Butler were feuding last year -- claims Butler denied in an interview with the Sun-Times.
After a year marked by bizarre internal strife that spilled into the public via Instagram, the pettiness continues to reverberate long after management made the much overdue decision to move Butler elsewhere in an effort to initiate a full rebuild.
But the teardown aspect remains incomplete as long as Wade is still here and angling for a buyout, a fact that would now seem to complicate coach Fred Hoiberg's chances of rehabilitating his standing in the locker room and on the bench. It's well past time to move on from all of it, the bickering about a superstar wanna-be who got shipped away and a semi-retired former great who will have nothing to do with the Bulls when and if they get around to mattering again.
Whatever the next phase of this is supposed to be, clean it up and get to it already.
Dan Bernstein is a co-host of 670 The Score's "Bernstein and Goff Show" in afternoon drive. You can follow him on Twitter @dan_bernstein and read more of his columns here.