Zach LaVine didn’t want to wait for questions. Before he took any questions during Chicago Bulls media day at the Advocate Center on Monday, the team’s $215 million maximum contract star made his own statement after spending the last year at the epicenter of rumors and reports of trade requests and failed deals. “When you go through a long offseason like I have, you get to learn a lot about yourself and the company you keep,” LaVine said.
“With everything that I learned, there’s times you need to speak and there’s times that you don’t. Whenever there’s something that needs to be said, it’ll come from Zach LaVine or my representation. .
.. Everything else you can take with a grain of salt.
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Anything negative that would try to pin me, the organization — rumors, drama, whatever it is — I’ll leave that in the past.” LaVine said he doesn’t want to talk about the potential for a trade or the possibility that he might play somewhere else during the season. Instead he focused on basketball, emphasizing that he plans to play whatever role is deemed necessary by coach Billy Donovan for the Bulls to get back on track this season.
And the Bulls top brass didn’t want to face those questions either. Executive vice president of basketball operations Artūras Karnišovas similarly ducked the question, focusing instead on how LaVine fits into the revamped, recycled roster after the departures of DeMar DeRozan and Alex Caruso. This doesn’t fully distract f.
