There will be no hope. There will be no Roses.
D. Rose was all smiles at media day where he mentioned "all the money being passed around in this league".
Derick Rose started this blog. Watching him get his game back at the start of last season gave me the final push necessary to get this blog going. I was just so excited man! There was plenty of reason to be! While Jimmy Butler was rising, and rising on people, D. Rose was crossin' people up, hittin' jumpers here and there, and seemed to always get his game together down the stretch of games – there was clutchness, there was enthusiasm.
Not this year, man. Not even with a new head coach, not with the fresh 'Duke-startin 5' haircut, not with renewed hopes for the beginning of Butler's dominance, stellar play from Gasol, and a return to health and form of Noah. Hell no! Not with this new head coach, not with how stupid D. Rose looks in that cut, and not for damn sure when my man is sitting at media day and with a straight face telling us about free agency 2017!
If you missed it, here are the two questions from the press conference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drW20edB2Zs
Let me make this abundantly clear – this is not about the injuries. Having torn both ACLs and suffering from two herniated discs in my back that essentially ended any hopes of mine for a basketball future, I can sympathize with a man getting injured. As long as you go hard.
This is about the misunderstanding that's in Derick's head. I feel safe concluding this now. Derick has the system confused. These contracts are based on performance and potential, not hope. And everything Derick has been saying in the past two years has me believing he feels like his reputation and the promise of solid play will suffice. Paraphrasing, Sarah Spain's words, we can't continually rephrase Derick's words for him. Serious journalists grant him the privilege of actually standing in front of cameras explaining his quotes and speculating on what D. Rose actually means when he speaks to protect him, because he's such a nice, humble, shy kid from Chicago that's been through a lot. And it seems not to have changed even with this gang rape lawsuit, which in truth, does seem shaky, but it seems at this point that the events in question aren't really contested by either side, only the issue of consent What other athlete gets such protection?
So, at the risk of sounding like a loud mouth, know-nothing fan, I shout - “You've been rewarded for all that by now Derick! You have 280 million shiny, guaranteed rewards for your struggle, dude! Now you start earning future fruit of your labor, getting your Latrell Spreewell on and “taking care of your family.”
Some of you may think that there is no cause for alarm following these comments, because he understands that he'll have to be healthy and play well to get another big contract and thus the Bulls will benefit. But let's break this down a little. When the star and hope of your team, when asked if the injuries are behind him, offers up that his focus going into this year is free agency two years down the road, you're a little concerned. Here's why: after picking apart what Rose has been saying for the last 2 years, you can't interpret these comments in the positive way cited above. Instead, you recognize that the D.Rose the Bulls actually need, is the one at least approaching the form of the 2011 MVP – and that guy was reckless. Reckless in the most poetic of ways. He was the current Westbrook that played pretty and didn't yell. There was no protection of the body in that game.
When Rose says he's thinking about taking care of his family, we take it to mean he's going to focus on his health, and his game. It seems that he hasn't gotten out of the struggle mentality, he's still concentrated on the financial future of his family. Other players, once they ink a massive deal, they try to justify it or go after something else - a legacy. It doesn't seem to me like Rose is down with that and thus I feel very little hope and excitement for the Bulls this year.
The once-unlikely scenario of Rose leaving Chicago is now very realistic and may come by mutual consent after the fans basically give up the point guard, and Derick himself feels offended and wants a change of scene. I defended Rose the last two years when he was taking games off to rest his body. But I was upset to find out it was for future meetings and graduations and not the playoffs. I'm down with him trying to adjust his game to protect his body. But upset to see Dwayne Wade - a guy who shoots threes even worse than Rose, but found a way to be an ultra-effective player in limited minutes and while relying for on a nearly-perfected mid rage game, while all sorts of metrics on D.Rose suggest he is simply incapable of being an effective enough player for the Bulls to contend, without driving strong to the basket. Rose never asked himself why athletes get paid so much in the first place. For the same reason why “danger pay” exists in many other professions. This isn't a regular job – it's a job in entertainment and there's implied consent for the long term health effects on the body. It seems a concept a bit outdated and prehistoric at times, but it is the bottom line. You're expected to make a shit ton of money during your career, which is expected to be shorter than most careers, and all that is expected to end up with you walking around with a limp.
There is a poetic element to sports. I don't think I'm naïve to believe about 90% of athletes truly love their professions, because I truly love basketball and nobody ever paid me to love it. I'm ready for that limp for free and I'm pretty sure Westbrook is too. Charles Barkley, who weighed in on this debate last year perhaps put it best. “I walk around with a limp – but I limp to a big-O house.”
D. Rose's focus will translate to more nights off to rest his sore legs, more ridiculous comments that will make us question his motives, more apathetic plays and demeanor that will make us question his drive. All that seemed silly for a while, but it's real now. We're not questioning his drive because he gets hurt or takes an elbow to the face. Grant Hill is my favorite player of all time and he literally got hurt for 4 years straight. But nobody would question Hill, in the way he worked to recover and eventually, actually get back to All-Star form. We just want him to realize that though it seems like money is being thrown around in the league, these GMs are no fools. And it's starting to seem possible he's been making fools out of the fans for a while now, but the people that do this for a living see the failed attempts to adjust his game simply by jackin' threes. And most importantly they see his conduct – which, in my mind, translates to believing that if forced to come down on a side of the question which is more valuable to him, money or championships, the honest answer is money. Shit, the way he's been going, if somebody asks him, he might actually admit it! And let me be clear. There is nothing intrinsically wrong with that. But when you're a GM evaluating a talent and you conclude at this point of his career, after two massive contracts is still motivated by non-basketball things, you may look the other way. GMs' jobs depend on wins. On assembling teams of true pros, instead of merely professional athletes. These GMs won't get caught up in your hype, Derick, even if you have any left. Just ask Tristan Thompson.
Russel Westbrook is far from a role model point guard. But compare the returns of Rose and Westbrook from multiple knee problems. Granted, the latter never tore his ACL, but do we really think if he had, he wouldn't have come back ballin' out anyway? Believing that the best way to actually hurt yourself is half-assin' it and the best way to actually protect your body is always being the aggressor. Maybe if D.Rose tried that, we'd all be winners. Bulls would be in the hunt, fans would root for a contender, and Derick would get his money. But Derick, let's make a deal. We wipe the slate clean. We forget about your bullshit and you stop riding the glory of a trophy collecting dust at your momma's house. You go out there and ball out, make us love you again, maybe give us some team success and then, in the words of the great Randy Moss, it's straight cash homie.
