Brian Scalabrine was summoned to Tom Thibodeau’s workplace in 2012 and the coach was fuming a few spot on ESPN Radio in Chicago.
“He’s like, what the f—k are you doing going on the radio, giving them bulletin board material to use against Jimmy Butler?” Scalabrine, then a ahead beneath Thibodeau with the Bulls, recalled to the Daily News. “He’s like, ‘You want to do radio interviews?’ I can make that happen tomorrow. You can do nothing but radio interviews.’”
The topic of Scalabrine’s interview was Butler’s breakout stretch as a rookie midseason, when Luol Deng was injured and Butler, the thirtieth general pick of Marquette, helped the Bulls beat the Jazz, Knicks and Heat.
Those performances woke up Scalabrine to the depth and aggressive spirit of Butler, the traits that carried the small ahead to a sure Hall of Fame induction and, starting with Game 1 on Sunday at Madison Square Garden, a second-round showdown towards Thibodeau’s Knicks.
“He was guarding LeBron and Carmelo and that dude was 1000 percent about that life. You could just tell,” Scalabrine mentioned. “He wasn’t like, ‘Uhh, LeBron, will you give me your jersey afterwards?’ He was 1000 percent about it. I’m watching on the bench and I’m like, man, that’s a bad motherf—ker right there.”
To this present day, Thibodeau discourages any quotes which will add stress to his crew or encourage the opposition. It’s partly why the present Knicks received’t provide many solutions past the boilerplate. And whereas Thibodeau wasn’t comfortable about Scalabrine gassing up a rookie in the identical breath as LeBron, Dwyane Wade and Carmelo Anthony, the coach and participant had a powerful sufficient relationship to maneuver previous the interview and thinly-veiled waiver-wire menace.
Still, Scalabrine wanted to grasp from his coach: why wasn’t Butler enjoying? Why was a participant so gifted getting buried within the rotation?
“Thibs is like, ‘With young players, man, you got to make them work for everything,’” Scalabrine mentioned. “When they work for every thing, they find yourself figuring out how necessary it’s and the way a lot every possession issues. So that’s the way you deliver alongside younger gamers. Keep them hungry. Keep them humble. Keep them working.
“And I really can’t argue with that. I don’t disagree with anything he said. Now the meeting’s over, break bread, me and Thibs are always good even when he’s threatening to cut me. And he was right. Jimmy Butler worked his ass off. He always wanted to play. And he always believed in himself. And he got down when he wouldn’t play but it never stopped him from working. On his body. On his conditioning. On his game.”
Thibodeau’s method with Butler is related to the Knicks, who’ve seven gamers within the rotation who’re 25 or youthful. Critics within the media and fanbase chastised Thibodeau for not giving children sufficient alternatives, however every has improved — particularly Immanuel Quickley and Mitchell Robinson — beneath his watch.
As Butler’s agent, Bernie Lee, advised The News after Thibodeau was employed by the Knicks, “Jimmy’s having a lot of success just based on the foundation that Thibs created for him.”
Now New York has to cease the monster that Thibodeau helped create.
“I’ll be honest — I didn’t see this,” Thibodeau mentioned of Butler’s ascension. “I noticed the issues that stood out have been his toughness, his competitiveness. He performed quite a lot of energy ahead [in college].
“But when you look at him, you say OK, I felt like we were getting a rotation player. I didn’t know how good he would become.”
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Source: www.bostonherald.com