Butler on Portis-Mirotic fight: 'I'm not to blame for this one'

Jimmy Butler spent enough time embroiled in Chicago Bulls drama, his name dancing in and out of the headlines through years of infighting and finger-pointing and organizational dysfunction.

Now, Butler is a Minnesota Timberwolf, which gives him a pretty strong alibi for Tuesday morning, when a Bulls practice ended in a disastrous physical altercation between Bobby Portis and Nikola Mirotic.

"All I know is I'm not to blame for this one," Butler told reporters at shootaround Wednesday.

"I don't know. I'm gonna be quiet on the matter."

Butler was square in the middle of most of the Bulls' public internal tension last season, most notably when he and Dwyane Wade put their teammates on blast, earning a sharp rebuke from teammate Rajon Rondo and a fine from head coach Fred Hoiberg.

But if the Bulls thought excising Butler - and their other two "Alphas," for that matter - would improve team harmony, they've so far been sorely mistaken.