Why Nikola Vucevic wasn’t satisfied with win over Wizards

It was a festive Saturday night for the Chicago Bulls. On the one hand, they honored six legendary members of the organization in their second annual Ring of Honor Ceremony. At the same time, they managed to eek by with a 121-120 victory over the lowly Washington Wizards. 

Even though the general rule of thumb is a win being a win, that wasn’t enough for Bulls’ center Nikola Vucevic. He finished the game with a double-double of 28 points and 12 rebounds. However, in his post-game interview with K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Sports Network, he wasn’t having it, per Steph Noh of Sporting News.

When describing the Bulls’ performance, he called it “soft” through the first three quarters. In the fourth quarter, the Bulls came around to outscore the Wizards 29-22. Also, Matas Buzelis and Jalen Smith photobombed the interview with Vucevic, looking obviously annoyed. As Smith played around with him, he told him to stop and carried on with the interview. 

“We didn’t do anything we talked about,” Vucevic said. “We played really soft, it was really bad. Obviously, we are happy we won, but we can’t keep doing this; it’s not sustainable. We have to be better.”