It wasn’t an ideal start to the season for Nikola Vucevic and the Chicago Bulls, who are already experiencing tension after just one game.
Chicago lost, 124-104, against the Oklahoma City Thunder during the regular season opener on Wednesday evening. It was a particularly stressful night for Vucevic, who seemed particularly frustrated during the third quarter.
The big man expressed frustration after an impressive layup from Oklahoma City’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. After the possession, Vucevic was called for a technical foul after throwing the basketball against the stanchion. He was in the midst of several minutes in a row without attempting a shot.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander blows by Alex Caruso and scores with a BEAUTIFUL finish 🔥
Nikola Vucevic received a technical foul after the play for throwing the ball against the stanchion. pic.twitter.com/RovB3KNQG3
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) October 26, 2023
A few minutes later, Vucevic and Bulls head coach Billy Donovan were seen arguing on the sideline in the middle of an Oklahoma City possession.
Here is more about the exchange, per Jamal Collier (via ESPN):
“Those happen in the heat of the moment,” Vucevic said. “You’re trying to win, you’re trying to do what you can to help your team win. I didn’t like what was going on.”
Vucevic later said that he was “a little more aggressive” about expressing his feelings than he intended.
Video of Billy Donovan & Nikola Vucevic getting into on the bench pic.twitter.com/aJGVHHJpju
— Gustavo (@iamvega1982) October 26, 2023
After the game, however, emotions were still intense when Donovan entered the locker room.
Donovan said that he asked the players if they wanted him to leave so they could handle it on their own and his team said yes.
Billy Donovan says when he walked into the Bulls locker room tonight, players were already in heated conversations.
He asked if they wanted him to leave to handle conflict. Players said yes, so he did.
Donovan emphasized that embracing conflict is key for this year’s roster.
— Julia Poe (@byjuliapoe) October 26, 2023
Donovan said that overall, this was productive for the Bulls (via NBC Chicago):
“I’ve said this before: I think confrontation is good. I think it’s healthy. I got all the respect in the world for Vooch. He felt a certain way. And I kind of said what I felt. He’s probably not wrong for feeling the way he did. But how do you channel that in a way that galvanizes the group and lifts them up?” Donovan said. “In the moment, I could’ve handled it better with him and maybe he could’ve handled it better with me. It wasn’t disrespectful or anything. He was just frustrated with the way we were playing. I didn’t blame him. I fell in line with him. But there’s gotta be a way together we can solve those issues and problems.
“I think the confrontation piece is really, really good. I think it’s really healthy. And I think it needs to happen as much as possible.”
It probably isn’t a great sign that there is already so much to get upset about this early in the season.
But at the same time, open dialogue and communication is healthy for any team and this could actually help Chicago to face adversity at this stage of the year.
