For a man who stood up to Michael Jordan, the latest Bulls controversy over playing time is, to use one of Bill Cartwright’s favorite sayings, nothing but a bag of shells.
After practice Thursday, the Bulls’ coach not only brushed off Eddie Robinson’s frustration as one might a speck of lint, he also issued a challenge to the team’s second-highest paid player.
“Playing time is really simple,” Cartwright said. “I’m going to give 10 guys an opportunity to play. If you want more playing time, you work hard in practice and play your [butt] off in games. And you play well. If you’re doing that, you’ll stay. If you don’t, the guys who are playing better than you will stay.”
There’s a pattern here. Cartwright kicked Jamal Crawford out of a practice during training camp. He told Trenton Hassell to leave at halftime of an exhibition game. And now, after Robinson erupted over back-to-back, six-minute appearances, Cartwright called out the player many consider the team’s most athletic.
“He’s going to have to guard better,” Cartwright said. Robinson, while vowing to continue working hard, didn’t back off.
“They were telling me all summer when they were wanting me as a free agent [in 2001] that I was going to play major minutes,” Robinson said calmly.
At issue is a desire among the coaching staff for Robinson to become a better practice player and defend better in games.
Robinson was on the court Wednesday for the first five minutes of the second quarter, when Milwaukee turned a five-point deficit into a three-point lead. Assistant Bill Berry got on Robinson for allowing Ray Allen to curl to the middle off screens. Robinson didn’t play again.
Robinson said he tried to explain why Allen was able to curl to the middle, but his comments were interpreted as “talking back.”
Robinson is shooting 38.2 percent in 13.9 minutes a game. “He’s going to have to make a shot; that’d be pretty good,” Cartwright said.
A toe injury limited Robinson to 29 games last season. He worked hard last off-season to reclaim his starting spot, and said he still believes he deserves it.
“OK, I’m not starting and I didn’t complain about that,” Robinson said. “But now I come off the bench and it’s like one mistake and come sit down. That’s frustrating as hell.”
