Recent Comments Not a Smart Move by Derrick Rose

The Chicago Bulls improved their overall record to an impressive 6-2 with a double digit win against the Detroit Pistons at the United Center on Monday evening. The Bulls absorbed a fierce comeback by the Detroit Pistons in the second half, to secure an 11 point victory. The final score of the contest was 102-91 in favor of the Bulls.

Nov 10, 2014; Chicago, IL, USA; Detroit Pistons center Andre Drummond (0) is defended by Chicago Bulls forward Taj Gibson (22) and forward Nikola Mirotic (44) during the first half at the United Center. Mandatory Credit: David Banks-USA TODAY Sports

Former MVP Derrick Rose returned to action against Detroit and produced a solid performance worthy of dissecting further. Rose hadn’t seen game action since last week Wednesday after making his own decision to rest the last two games in an effort to rehabilitate his hurt ankles. Derrick Rose suffered sprains to both of his ankles in the second game of the season against the Cleveland Cavaliers. In the first half of the game, Derrick Rose landed on the foot of Cleveland guard Kyrie Irving after a made basket. Since this early season game, Derrick Rose has been in-and-out of the lineup, much to the dismay of Bull’s fans everywhere.

But, he was back with a vengeance in the game on Tuesday night, finishing with an impressive 24 points on 9-20 shooting and 7 assists to boot. He had bursts of explosiveness and in my opinion was most successful when he aggressively drove to the basket and laid it in or dished it out to an open teammate. Once again, Derrick Rose struggled with his jump shot, and really did the defense a favor by settling for jumpers instead of being aggressive.

Derrick Rose has an ugly three point shot in my opinion. He never sets his feet, instead opting to step forward into the shot and not jumping straight up. His shot looks rushed and I think this contributes to his pedestrian .316 three point shooting percentage this season. I’d like to see him save his jumpers for pull-ups on drives when he has driven closer to the basket and broken down the defense to a certain degree.

Nov 5, 2014; Milwaukee, WI, USA; Chicago Bulls guard Derrick Rose (1) during the game against the Milwaukee Bucks at BMO Harris Bradley Center. The Bulls won 95-86. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Hanisch-USA TODAY Sports

Here are Rose’s highlights from the game Monday night. Enjoy!

However, despite producing an extremely solid performance in the game on Monday, fans will not remember the November 10th Bull’s game for Rose’s performance. Rather, Rose’s on-court play will take a backseat to the post-game comments that he made to reporters after the game.

Derrick Rose was asked about his performance by reporters and how he was feeling. He responded in the following fashion.

"“I’m good, man,” Rose said. “I felt like I’ve been managing myself pretty good. I know a lot of people get mad when they see me sit out or whatever, but I think a lot of people don’t understand that.”"

So far, I have no complaints about anything that he said. He gave the reporters the answer that they wanted and was just ambiguous enough in his answer to avoid criticism. Derrick Rose should have stopped here. If he felt the need to speak more he should have evaluated his performance or talked about his teammates and getting the win together. Heck, he could have talked about his plans for the night, just anything that didn’t involve what he talked about next. In a massive public relations trip-up, Derrick Rose fed the fire of his doubters with the following couple of sentences.

"“When I sit out it’s not because of this year. I’m thinking about long term. I’m thinking about after I’m done with basketball. Having graduations to go to, having meetings to go to, I don’t want to be in my meetings all sore or be at my son’s graduation all sore just because of something I did in the past. [I’m] just learning and being smart.”"

Naturally, the backlash on social media and ESPN conversation was historic. Rose catered this response to his doubters, confirming their belief that he is soft and isn’t truly dedicated to his team.

For starters, I personally believe that Rose didn’t understand the implications of his comments at the time that they were spoken. I don’t really think that Rose meant for his words to be interpreted in the manner in which they were.

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It is important to establish the meaning that I conceived from the jumbled Derrick Rose quotation stated above. I interpreted Rose’s quotation as signifying that the star point guard has sat out 4.5 games this season because he is concerned about his long term future. Rose’s quotation could have taken upon an entirely new persona if by ‘long term’ he meant playoffs because fans would have assuredly understood Rose’s intention to rest during the regular season (especially the beginning) in an effort to be fresh and ready during the playoffs. But, Rose unwisely took it a step further, saying that he is worried about the even bigger picture and this has served as sufficient motivation for him benching himself. Although I truly believe Rose is an extremely tough individual, by uttering these comments Rose created an image for himself of being a soft player.

Oct 31, 2014; Chicago, IL, USA; Chicago Bulls guard Derrick Rose (1) on the bench during the second half against the Cleveland Cavaliers at the United Center. Cleveland won 114-108 in overtime. Mandatory Credit: Dennis Wierzbicki-USA TODAY Sports

For the record, Rose was justified for missing some of the games due to injury. He legitimately hurt himself against Cleveland and needed time to rehabilitate his hurt ankles. However, missing 4 games because of sprained ankles is a stretch and I think it speaks to the fact that Rose struggles overcoming the mental barrier needed to play through injuries.

Regardless, of his intention, Rose has created a very negative image for himself with his recent comments. The only way that he fixes this image is by winning. And it is a long term fix, because simply being successful in the regular season isn’t enough anymore. Chicago expects a championship and by winning one is the only way that Rose can right the ship that he has systematically veered. It is amazing how previous grudges are magically dissipated when a team is reveling in championship glory.

If Rose’s situation was different, fans and the media may have been more receptive to his comments. However, the disgruntled superstar has missed virtually all of the last two seasons and 4.5 of the 8 games this season already. Couple all this missed time with his 5 year $94.8 million contract and this missed time looks even worse. This is why people are mad: Rose hasn’t really done anything for the Bull’s over the last 3 seasons except serving as a glorified cheerleader, yet he is getting paid stupid amounts of money to essentially warm the bench every night.

The comments also look bad considering the culture that the Chicago Bulls have prided themselves on over the years. This is the toughest of tough teams whose players play through sickness/ injuries to help their team win. Michael Jordan had one of the most historic games of his career when he was sick with the flu. Joakim Noah admitted that he played through serious knee issues in the playoffs last year against the Washington Wizards. Nate Robinson threw up on the bench of a playoff game yet continued to play. It is part of the Chicago culture to sacrifice for the team when injured and Rose broke the mold in a bad way when he suggested his reluctance to play.

Rose’s comments are reason to explore an underlying issue that explains the context of the comments. If you have been following my work on fansided, recall that I recently wrote about how Rose’s biggest weakness is he mentally struggles playing through injury. As far as I’m concerned, these comments reiterate my point. Derrick Rose has created a mental barrier for himself that prevents him from wanting to play unless 100% ready and healthy. This mental barrier stems from his perfectionist approach to the game of basketball—it is almost as if he is embarrassed to go out there to play if he isn’t perfectly ready to go.

Nov 10, 2014; Chicago, IL, USA; Chicago Bulls guard Derrick Rose (1) and Detroit Pistons guard Brandon Jennings (7) go for the ball during the third quarter at the United Center. The Chicago Bulls defeated the Detroit Pistons 102-91. Mandatory Credit: David Banks-USA TODAY Sports

Unfortunately, the attitude that Rose currently holds isn’t a realistic approach for an 82 game season. There is a fine line between resting for the playoffs and sitting out a ridiculously high amount of games and not being ready to play basketball come playoff time. Yes, it is the beginning of the season and for all intents and purposes these games don’t mean jack squat in the very very long term. Still Rose needs to be playing through some of this stuff. There is a difference between injury and soreness, and come playoff time Rose may need to play through both in order to help his team to the NBA Finals.

I’m not questioning Rose’s toughness, mental barriers are things that can affect even the toughest and grittiest people in the whole entire world. With his history of career-threatening injuries Rose has the right to be wary about minor aches and pains. But, in order to evolve his game to the next level he must overcome his mental demons and learn how to play through injuries. It can be done, but it may take some time.

But the bigger picture remains Rose’ questionable interview comments. So, a suggestion for Rose: Think before you speak. Also, I’m not trying to be harsh or racist or anything, but people have to see that Rose isn’t an outspoken guy. It isn’t his thing. His personal relations team needs to help him out by giving him strategies to approach his post-game conferences with. A PR move like this can’t happen again, and good PR team can go a long way to making sure that this doesn’t happen. His comments after the game on Monday are almost as bad as the debacle that ensued following the season where he tore his ACL.