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Butler: Return to Bulls possible, but 'all about being wanted and winning'

Jonathan Daniel / Getty Images Sport / Getty

Jimmy Butler came of age as an NBA player with the Chicago Bulls, and he hasn't forgotten that. While his tenure with the team ended under less-than-ideal terms, he's grateful.

"I loved the city of Chicago, and I love the Reinsdorfs (owner Jerry and family)," Butler told the Sun-Times' Joe Crowley on Wednesday. "I'm forever grateful for them in taking a chance on me, allowing me to become the player that I am today. It's still incredible to me that I got to hoop in a Bulls jersey. I got to play in the house that Jordan built, that Pippen played, all that stuff."

Butler had a strong relationship with Bulls ownership, but less so with the management team of John Paxson and Gar Forman that traded the swingman to the Minnesota Timberwolves last summer. When asked if he'd ever return to the Bulls, Butler left the door open down the road.

"If the time comes where I say, 'You know what, I do want to end this thing in a Bulls jersey,' I think that would be amazing," Butler said. "But it's all about being wanted and winning."

Asked if it would help if Forman wasn't there, Butler laughed and walked away, according to Cowley.

The 28-year-old Butler has a player option on his contract after next season. He sat out the fourth quarter of the Timberwolves' season-ending defeat to the Houston Rockets in Game 5 on Wednesday due to a sore knee.

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