It looks like the rift between Bulls guard Jay Williams and veteran forward Jalen Rose appears to be over, K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune is reporting.  After a loss to the Orlando Magic Williams exploded, disclosing his belief that there is a rift between teammates and the coaching staff, also hinting that perhaps a trade - even one that involves him - may be the solution that the Bulls need.

The Bulls, specifically coach Bill Cartwright, thought the comments were out of line.  Captain Jalen Rose thought the same, calling Williams' comments "stupid" and denying that such a situation exists.  Cartwright spent time at the Berto Center yesterday addressing his team on what is and is not appropriate to say to the media, then in front of a flux of cameras Rose hugged his rookie point guard and even planted a kiss on his head, demonstrating that the players had kissed and made up.

Three days have now passed since Williams made the comments and he was not backing down from his words even if it appeared he had made ammends with his team.

"I spoke from the heart and it's over," Williams said Wednesday. "I don't think I said anything that was negative or bad for anybody. That's how I felt. It's time to move on and play now.

"The rift is just the frustration we have from losing. When it keeps developing and developing, it can happen. We had a great meeting, and now we have to keep fighting."

Williams appologised to his teammates during a players only meeting, and he also met with Coach Cartwright to discuss the situation.  Williams will not be fined for the incident but he is expected to lose his starting position to fellow guard Jamal Crawford who practiced with the first unit.

Rose said all the right things, calling Williams "my rookie, a great kid" and "a hard-working guy" and saying his current struggles will eventually disappear.

"He's going to be a player in this league," Rose said.

"In the NBA everybody has to earn their stripes," Rose added. "Nothing is given to you. There is no red-carpet treatment. You can get all the promotion, but at the end of the day you're going to be judged by your peers and what you do between those lines."

While Rose believes his relationship with the rookie guard is "very good", listening to Williams it is hard to believe that the feeling is mutual.

"We're still feeling each other out," Williams said. "It has been hard. When you're losing games, you keep going at each other because you want to win. We're both competitive people and want to win.

"You just have to move on and keep playing hard and keep playing good. I haven't been playing the best basketball, but I can guarantee everybody I'm going to keep working hard."

Also according to Johnson Cartwright warned that nothing's easy and that Williams' perception of what he can do isn't currently consistent with his reality. His competition with Crawford, for instance, isn't going away.

"I don't care where you go, you're going to have competition for your position, whether it's here, Europe, the developmental league," Cartwright said. "That's what this league is all about. The best players play. Jamal happens to be here. Jamal's playing pretty good and you have to go from there."