As if he wants or needs to hear it, my heartfelt advice to Derrick Rose at this point would be to keep on being Derrick Rose.
That might be easier said than done, given no matter what the Chicago Bulls star moves to do these days there always seems a whole faction of people relentlessly protesting he should be concentrating on doing just the opposite.
Weeks ago, when Rose told media members he was leaning toward competing for a spot on Team USA, but would only do so if he was mentally convinced he was healed and conditioned enough to do so, he took heat from some for shying away from what they thought would be the perfect setting for him to work himself back into a position to excel and compete this upcoming season.
And now, even after that, Rose has put all those trepidations behind him by thus far being the “most impressive” player in camp, the slings and arrows still have not fully abated.
“A seriously compromised USA Basketball National Team, combined with Derrick Rose playing and talking as if he never sustained an injury in his life, should make anyone hoping to see Rose return to his MVP form next season nervous,” wrote BleacherReport columnist Ric Bucher.
Might I remind all those who share in those sentiments that Derrick Rose makes his living by competing at the highest level? That he wouldn’t be Derrick Rose, youngest MVP in league history, without approaching the game with the same zeal and passion as he always has?
“He didn’t back off at all,” a rival Eastern Conference general manager told reporters. “He was blasting baseline to baseline the way he always has. And on defense he actually was blocking shots left and right because guys were testing him. He wasn’t, in any way, shape or form, favoring his leg or looking as if he’d been hurt.” Added a fellow Western Conference GM, “you’d never know he got hurt.”
And isn’t that the desired result, that Derrick Rose can again be… Derrick Rose? Beyond that, you show me any athlete, particularly one competing at such an elite level, who takes the field worried about being injured and I’ll show you one most susceptible to be hurt.
With Kevin Durant and Paul George assured of still being here in the states when Team USA ventures to Spain later this month to compete among 24 World Cup squads, it doesn’t take John Wooden to tell you this team will only go as far as its backcourt combination of Rose, Steph Curry, James Harden and Kyrie Irving can take them.
And Rose could be the most significant of them all. Given such high-stakes, I say ball out DRose.
