Typically, bench players traded away from a 14-44 team don’t make this much noise. But Bobby Portis was the leader of the locker room, the longest-tenured the Bull and outspoken about his desire to be a Bull for life. It’s going to take a little time to digest the fact that he’s gone.
Portis has remained in the news after going on a Bulls related twitter rant and returning to the UC as a visiting player. He was in the news again yesterday after telling national NBA reporter Alex Kennedy that Gar Forman lied to him days before he was traded.
“On Sunday [before the trade deadline], I was seeing rumors and stuff on Twitter and Instagram so I called my agent. I asked him, “Am I in trade talks?” My agent immediately called Gar Forman, who is the GM of the Bulls. Gar Forman said, “No, it would have to be a blockbuster trade. If we were getting [a superstar like] LeBron James or Kevin Durant, then yeah, we’d trade Bobby. But [otherwise], no, we’re not trading Bobby.”
“They told me how much they valued me – that I was part of our core and that I was in the long-term plans. They told me how much they loved my energy, my heart, how hard I worked, how much I loved playing for the Bulls. Them telling me that I’m going to be there [through the deadline] and telling me that they want to work things out this summer [in restricted free agency]. We weren’t able to agree to a contract extension [before the Oct. 15 deadline], but they said they wanted to agree to something this summer before free agency hits. I think back on everything they told me. All this stuff was said and then I don’t even get notified when I’m getting traded? “
As much as Portis loved Chicago, and as well as he played for most of his career here, trading him and Jabari Parker for Otto Porter was the right basketball move.
However, this is just another example in a long list of examples of John Paxson and Gar Forman misleading their own and dissuading players from wanting to come to play in Chicago.
After the trade, 670 The Score’s Danny Parkins had Paxson on his radio show and asked him his thoughts about the perception around the league that players don’t want to come to Chicago because of the culture. Paxson scoffed at the question, saying “Give me one specific example of players something like that about us!!!!!”
Well, John, along with the multiple examples Parkins gave you that you laughably dismissed as inaccurate, Portis just went on the record. It’ll be nice to see what lie you come up with when you’re asked about it.
