“I’m gonna do anything that my teammates want me to do,” said Jimmy Butler, the Chicago Bulls 30th pick in the NBA draft.  The former Marquette power forward is a versatile player, who at 6’8’’ can guard multiple positions, “He could guard 2’s, he could guard 3’s, he could guard 4’s. There were even games where they would assign him to guard the point guard,” said General Manager Gar Forman about his versatility during his career at Marquette.  Chicago had their eye on Butler for a while, and was pleasantly surprised that he was still available late in the first round, “There’s been no question in our minds for quite a while that Jimmy was a real, real fit for this team, for this organization. We’ve known about Jimmy for a number of years”, “We didn’t think he would be there. So when he was, there wasn’t any discussion tonight as far as what we were doing at thirty,” Gar Forman said.

 

There has been a lot of chatter about the Bulls’ two guard spot, and possibly improving that position.  Gar Forman, however, believes that in the draft it is important to pick the best available player, not necessarily filling a certain position, “It really is our philosophy, that were going to draft the best player on the board.”

It’s always important to draft a player that has the game on the floor.  But sometimes the players’ attitude and character off the court will determine where they go in the future.  Jimmy Butler is that guy.  His childhood story is remarkable. At the age of thirteen he was thrown out of his house by his mother with no place to go. He bounced around, staying at friends houses from week to week and it wasn’t until the summer of his junior year that he was adopted by family for good.  If you want to read the entire story, ESPN’s Chad Ford did an incredible job.  Butler is a character guy to say the least, and Forman and the coaching staff noticed it when they met with him, “He really kind of blew us away.” Butler talked about his childhood Thursday night and how his experiences made him the man he is today, “It’s made me much more of a better person because I know how to treat people. I just think it helped me out because I needed to grow up at a young age. I never had anything. But I made it. I never complained, I put my head down, and kept pushing through everything and that’s how I live my life and I’m gonna keep doing that.”