Zach LaVine has been slept on ever since his ACL tear and subsequent trade to Chicago, and he knows it.
The Bulls guard was recently left off an ESPN list ranking the top 25 players in the NBA under 25 years old. LaVine, who just turned 23, took an opportunity to respond to the snub earlier this week.
“You guys [the media] don’t think I’m better…Top 25 players under 25? If I’m not in the Top 25 of that, then I obviously haven’t done what I’m supposed to be doing out here,” said LaVine, per Vincent Goodwill of NBC Sports Chicago. “I don’t worry about that. I know I’m a lot better than what they think. Random people talking.”
“I don’t give a damn, man,” the two-time Slam Dunk Contest champion added. “I motivate myself. I go out there and play for my team and family. I couldn’t care what they think. There’s a lot of people that know what I do.”
For his part, LaVine tore his left ACL in February of 2017 and was traded by the Minnesota Timberwolves to the tanking Bulls several months later as a centerpiece of the Jimmy Butler trade. He made his Chicago debut in January and is averaging a modest 16.6 points and 3.9 assists per game this season, making him something of a forgotten man these days.
Granted, ESPN doesn’t always get these things right, and as LaVine asserts himself as an alpha on a young Bulls team, he may not forget any time soon.
