As Aaron Gray walked to the bench after Drew Gooden replaced him following a brief second-quarter stint on Tuesday, the rookie center, according to several witnesses, snapped at interim coach Jim Boylan.
"That's what I get for working hard?" Gray said.
A shocked Boylan snapped back and Gray, a second-round pick, played only the final 1:21 of a blowout victory over Memphis the rest of the night.
Welcome to the 2007-08 Bulls, where personal agendas often reign supreme and the me-first behavior of entitlement both on and off the court has been a major factor in the team's underachieving ways.
Tyrus Thomas' premeditated decision to skip Wednesday's practice without informing the organization is just the latest example in a series of events that started with players voting to lift the team's headband ban for Ben Wallace back in training camp.
Opposing players routinely questioned what message having a team rule for everyone save one player sent.
Then, Luol Deng and Ben Gordon turned down multi-million-dollar contract extensions on Opening Day and, by many accounts, have played as if they're in a contract season. Even former Bulls coach Doug Collins addressed their shoot-first mindset on Thursday's national TNT broadcast.
Joakim Noah drew a two-game suspension for berating assistant coach Ron Adams on Jan. 11 in Philadelphia.
Otherwise, Noah is lauded for his practice habits and thirst for winning, which included challenging Wallace after a Jan. 15 loss in Orlando. But the rookie also is routinely late for meetings and holds up team buses with his unfocused ways.
JamesOn Curry, another second-round pick who management knew wouldn't contribute this season, got arrested for public urination and resisting arrest during a Development League stint in January.
All of this is a far cry from the days when Jannero Pargo or Eric Piatkowski wouldn't play or make a peep for a week and come in to drop big shot after big shot on an opponent. Or when last season's 49-victory team eventually bought into the team concept needed to finish second in opponents' field goal percentage and first in forced turnovers.
This isn't to romanticize recent Bulls teams, either. P.J. Brown, long considered one of the game's classier players, publicly popped off about his role early last season. And Wallace's insubordination in November 2006 over the team's headband rule remains shocking for its premeditated spite.
It is safe to say that these Bulls have strayed from the formula for success of recent seasons, one that a team lacking a legitimate go-to superstar must follow to succeed.
Share the ball. Play defense. Outwork opponents. Play as a team.
And as the Bulls make a late-season playoff push and general manager John Paxson prepares for major offseason changes, the players who have been here longest know it.
"We've lost the way we play," guard Kirk Hinrich said. "We used to hang our hat on playing as a team, getting stops and beating teams up and down the floor.
"Now, we're inconsistent. I don't know if it's individual agendas. I feel like we just haven't done a good job of handling adversity this year. We've had some crazy incidents happen. And this season has worn us down. I think everybody knows we have to be better defensively and go back to the way we used to play if we want to win games. It's a matter of guys buying in and doing it."
Andres Nocioni is even more blunt.
"Nobody can act like they're above the team," said Nocioni, who wouldn't elaborate when asked if teammates did. "We need to play everybody together."
Thursday's impressive home victory over the Cavaliers hammers that point home even further, though the team took an obvious step backward in its road loss Friday night against the Celtics.
The Bulls committed to guarding LeBron James after he torched them with a 26-point first half. The Cavaliers' superstar then shot 3-of-12 after halftime.
Noah relentlessly attacked the boards, leading to second-chance points on the offensive end and fast-break opportunities on the defensive end. And the Bulls had assists on 14 of 23 second-half field goals, or 61 percent, which is above their season percentage.
"That game, we played the way the Chicago Bulls play," Nocioni said. "Everybody helps each other. Everybody takes open shots. Everybody plays hard on defense. That's how we have to play, which I've said many times, and we're not doing that.
"We don't have any stars on this team. We don't have anybody like LeBron or Kobe (Bryant) or Kevin Garnett. And everybody is unhappy the way the team is playing because we believe we can be in first place in the conference. So I think frustration is what sets off Tyrus or somebody else. It's getting worse and worse, so I hope that game helps us play more together."
Beyond the lack of a transcendent talent, the Bulls still lack leadership. Larry Hughes, 29, is now the team's elder statesman. Hinrich and Deng are co-captains, but it took the since-traded Adrian Griffin to call a November team meeting and, along with Wallace, organize a vote to lengthen Noah's punishment.
Michael Jordan might have punched Gray for popping off to Boylan.
As Paxson assembled a roster of hardworking gym rats that many league observers envied, he rid the organization of players with poor practice habits or poor team-first attitudes like Eddie Robinson, Tim Thomas and J.R. Smith.
When Paxson traded Wallace on Feb. 21 in that three-team, 11-player deal, he pointedly said that the remainder of the season would be an evaluation period of his young players and demanded accountability.
Such words recalled what he said on March 1, 2006, the day he bought out Tim Thomas' contract.
"I am not going to apologize for us having a certain standard," Paxson said then.
This season has offered several violations of that standard. Approximately 20 games remain to salvage it.
