Jimmy Butler Talks Hoiberg and Gar in his Vice Sports Feature

Jimmy Butler has become Hollywood as hell. While we already knew that, we’re kind of glad that Vice Sports’s Michael Pina went through all the trouble. He not only shined a light on some of the insider aspects of Jimmy Butler’s personality and everyday life, but also provided context for why Butler acted the way he did during his time in Chicago.

Here is an abridged version of the article with quotes containing information pertinent to his time with the Chicago Bulls.

It Takes A Lot to Earn Jimmy Butler’s Respect

We always kind of assumed this, but here it is straight out of his mouth.

"I think it's wrong for me to think that people want what I want because in reality they don't. Some people are OK with getting drafted. Some people are OK with playing two years in the league, four years in the league, six years in the league. Some people are OK with just scoring a basket in an NBA game. I'm not OK with any of that. I'm not satisfied until I win a championship," he says. "I want everybody to work the way that I work and it's wrong for me to think like that because people don't do it! But in my mind I'm just like why? Why don't you want to chase greatness the way that I do?"

If there were any lingering questions over why Butler called out his younger teammates last January this quote provides all the needed context.

Reason He Butted Heads With Fred Hoiberg

Butler infamously called out Hoiberg in December 2015 for not coaching the team hard enough.

"I'm confrontational. I feed off of confrontation. It makes me go. Not everybody's like that. [Bulls head coach Fred Hoiberg] is not that coach, and there's nothing wrong with that. There are different coaching styles and people are gonna say—which is what they did say—'It's gonna be Jimmy's team or it's gonna be Fred's team.' Two total opposite ends of the spectrum. They're either gonna try to win it now or they're gonna go young. And you see which way they went with it. Completely fine. Yo, it's y'all's business. It's y'all's organization. It's cool. And now I'm in Minnesota and couldn't be happier."

Maybe Don’t Give Gar Forman So Much Credit for Selecting Butler

For the #FireGarPax hell-raisers, this is the most intriguing part of the article.

"I didn't think people would draft him out of junior college after one year, but I thought he was draftable," Marquis said. "I called [Bulls general manager] Gar Forman, who I had known since he was coaching at Iowa State and New Mexico State, and said there's something special about Jimmy. If they just continued to watch his progress, they'd really, really like him."

Here’s the context. Mike Marquis (the coach quoted above) was the head coach at Tyler Junior College, where Butler began his collegiate career. He previously coached in Iowa at a bunch of small community colleges so there is his connection with Gar Forman

Whether you believe that Forman would have found/scouted Butler without the help of Marquis or if Forman deserves credit for sticking with Butler for the entire recruiting process is reserved for your judgement.

Best Part of The Article

This has nothing to do with basketball, but it will make you laugh out loud.

"I don't know how many times I'd either wake up in the morning or wake up at night and his ass is sitting in bed, eating some snacks, with his feet crossed, with a cowboy hat on, watching the damn Lion King with some country music softly playing," Fulce (college roommate) said to VICE Sports. "His ass is weird." (Butler still really loves country music.)”