Bulls rookie Caleb Wilson steps up against LeBron James

Chicago Bulls rookie Caleb Wilson leads his team in scoring as coach Tiago Splitter faces LeBron James. In 12 years, Splitter will no longer be competing against LeBron James, but will be coaching against him, as he is now in Year 24 of James' NBA career. Wilson's teammate Splitter, now 41, is no longer the explosive offensive weapon he once was, but James is still an unbelievable player to watch and compete against. Wilson, however, is just getting started on his NBA journey, and as this week has shown, it is not exactly a quiet arrival for the 20-year-old.

In most locker rooms, the veteran players would put talk like that down, keeping the rookie in a rookie place. But for Wilson and the Bulls, it works because it is a younger team, it is a new regime, and more importantly, his teammates know it comes from a place of being genuine rather than filled with bravado. Splitter is not concerned about having to navigate comments from his rookie, saying, “I don’t see it that way, by any means.”

Wilson made that very clear in Boston when he was discussing the team’s lethargic play in the loss and said, “I’m 20 and I’ve never been a loser in my whole life so I’m going to try my best to make sure that doesn’t happen, and I’m not ever going to accept being a loser. This is my job to be a leader on this team and it’s all going to start with me, I know that. Nothing that I do, I feel like, is typical.”

He doubled down on that a day later, telling reporters, “I’m 20 and I’ve never been a loser in my whole life so I’m going to try my best to make sure that doesn’t happen, and I’m not ever going to accept being a loser. This is my job to be a leader on this team and it’s all going to start with me, I know that. Nothing that I do, I feel like, is typical.”