Jabari Parker's time with the Chicago Bulls didn't exactly go as planned.
Signed last summer to start at small forward, at least according to management, he came off the bench for the first seven games of the season before being inserted to the starting lineup at power forward. But that was under Fred Hoiberg, who was fired on Dec. 2 and replaced by Jim Boylen — a defense-first coach known for his old-school principals.
It wasn't surprising to see Jabari Parker subsequently lose his starting spot to Lauri Markkanen. who just returned from injury. However, in mid-December, he was taken out of the rotation entirely.
Parker was inactive or didn't play in 13 of Chicago's last 25 games before being dealt to the Washington Wizards at Thursday's deadline. Still, the fifth-year forward insists he never had any issue with Boylen, at least until the days leading up to his trade.
“At that point, we never had controversy, always had my back,” Parker said of Boylen when asked about his benching, per K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune. “The things we had in-house problems with, I always had his back. To see that relationship go sour, not from my end but from his, was just bad because you trust a guy.”
It's unclear when exactly the relationship between Parker and Boylen “soured.” Say what you will about Boylen's coaching philosophies, but he was under no obligation to play Parker. Besides, the former Bucks never had a future with the Bulls to begin with, considering the parameters of his one-year, $20 million contract.
Either way, this is all in the past for both sides — except for Saturday night, of course.
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