NEWSLETTER
Drama didn’t evade the Chicago Bulls this season. The organization had an opening night players-only meeting, a soft Zach LaVine trade request, a pair of season-ending injuries, and plenty of Billy Donovan speculation. But that’s not all!
According to NBC Sports Chicago’s K.C. Johnson, the Bulls had an incident behind the scenes that was kept quiet until now. The long-time Bulls’ beat reporter learned that leading scorer DeMar DeRozan and guard Jevon Carter got into it during a film session. The implication is that this incident occurred somewhere close to the 124-97 loss to the Boston Celtics on Nov. 28, which put the Bulls at 5-14 on the season.
Here’s how Johnson described what happened:
“DeMar DeRozan kept referring in length to a low point in the season for him personally, but he wouldn’t reveal the details. I was actually able to source it out, and it’s on our website. I found out that he and Jevon Carter had a pretty heated exchange this season in a practice film session. And it really kind of troubled DeMar because of how intense it got … He was talking about how negatives can turn into positives and how lesser teams would have fractured, and this team didn’t fracture. And that the team got closer from this incident.”
First things first, Johnson suggests that both DeRozan and Carter are on completely fine terms after this. The idea here isn’t that this is some kind of lingering wound that impacted the team negatively. Instead, DeRozan appears to be implying that it’s actually quite the opposite.
The exchange seemed to be a necessary airing of grievances that helped strengthen this group. DeRozan is right, a team can either crumble under the pressure or rise to the occasion. While we certainly can’t say that the Bulls heroically rose from the ashes, they at least got back up after that loss to the Celtics.
Chicago would go on to beat the Milwaukee Bucks and New Orleans Pelicans to jumpstart a four-game winning streak. They would go 10-5 from Nov. 30 to the end of the 2023. The Bulls would also finish the season as a whole 34-29 to clinch their spot in the Play-In Tournament. We can’t deny that they at least figured something out, and sometimes incidents like these are a necessary part of that process.
Nevertheless, it does add to a long list of theatrics that accentuate the troubling place this franchise is in. Even if moments like these prove to be a necessary evil, the goal is that the team shouldn’t have to have them in the first place. They should have never been 5-14 to begin with. Not to mention, it should never be this hard to merely clinch a Play-In Tournament berth, especially for a veteran team!
If you’re interested in hearing the full story from Johnson, I highly recommend listening to the Bulls Talk podcast. You can also catch a clip of Johnson talking about the incident below:
