How much loyalty should an athlete give to a city:

I think it depends on the player, it really does. Everybody is different and has different opinions.  It matters a lot to me, I love playing in Chicago.  The fans are nuts, I love that, die hard fans.  They show me a lot of love, that’s why we go out there and give it everything we got.

Are you concerned the Chicago Bulls have not gotten better this offseason?

I’m just focused right now on what I can do to help the team.  Obviously, we lost some pieces, we’ve added some pieces. It’s exciting, we’ve gone through a little bit of adversity, but I think we’re a team full of fighters. And that’s what I love about Chicago, about the Bulls.

I haven’t seen him in a couple of weeks, but, I know he’s working really hard at getting back as soon as possible. It was obviously a tough break for us, but we’re going to bounce back.  Right now, people are sleeping on us, and we’re alright with that. We know that at the end of the day, come playoff time, we’ll be ready to go.  I love Derrick, he’s like a little brother to me, and I know how competitive he is.  I know he wants to bring a championship back to Chicago more than anything. He’s a really humble guy, and there’s no other superstar player in the NBA like him.  I just hope when he comes back and it’s not about how many shots he takes, at the end of the day, I just think he does whatever it takes to win a basketball game – and since he’s gotten into the league, we’ve won quite a few. It was emotional for him and for all of us [when he went down], we worked so hard to get to where we were at and to see our best player, not even just our best player, but a good dude, go down like that, it was definitely tough. Like I said, a lot of people are sleeping on us right now, but we know that we are going to bounce back and be hungrier than ever. 

Do you still think the Miami Heat are “Hollywood”? 

I think they’re Hollywood, but you’ve gotta give them credit, they’re the champions right now, and one day I hope we get that.

Were you rooting for them in the Finals? 

I was not rooting for anybody in the finals.  I was not rooting for the Miami Heat, that’s for sure.