National Basketball Association

Taking Derrick Rose for Granted

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

foxsports

The annual rite that signifies the beginning of official activities – media day – comes for every team. It’s a chance to start fresh, gain all of the muscle, or melt the brain of any conscious observer. Enter, Derrick Rose.

Derrick Rose is gone from the Chicago Bulls, but that doesn’t mean there was ever a chance of a clean break.

Rose, for so many, embodied so much more about Chicago and basketball in the city than just the Bulls. So while he has moved on, as has a majority of Chicago fans, it wasn’t painless and still isn’t.

And yet, media day was so boring.

Sure, people wanted to know more about the Nerlens Noel comments about the Philadelphia roster construction, but everything else was business as usual.

And then there was this:

That’s a pretty strong take, even by Derrick Rose Says Stuff standards. And there’s a lot to unpack there.

Rose is probably one of the consistently worst speakers when a microphone is in front of him. Most things he has to say are so easy to misconstrue or take out of context.

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Plus, a lot of these guys are just served up for these type of media obligations. They answer the questions they are asked and sometimes the result is not good.

Fortunately, the full quote from Stefan Bondy’s piece at New York Daily News gives us more, and better, information:

“In Chicago, I think they just got used to seeing me. Ever since I was in grammar school. Then six or seven months I spent at (the University of Memphis), and I came right back to Chicago,” Rose said. “And they saw me when I was in my prime, I think I can still reach that prime, but I think they just got used to me. That’s no knock against them. I can’t get mad at them or hold a grudge against them. All I can do is just work on my game and hope that they continue to look.”

It’s fairly common for athletes to take even minuscule slights personally, using it as motivation. In this case, it seems like the Chicago fan base might have an opportunity to do the same.

Bulls fans did get Rose at his best. The tragic part is that his “best” was a very small window between his development and unfortunate series of injuries. Chicago was used to Rose, but it was mostly the gut punches of his extended absences that they were most familiar with by the end.

It doesn’t help the narrative that Rose is building, but the truth is that Bulls fans didn’t really get used to Rose – they couldn’t get enough.