After watching his basketball life flash before his eyes over the past three seasons as he battled a litany of injuries, Chicago Bulls guard Derrick Rose reiterated after Tuesday's practice that he is thinking about his long-term future more than ever. When asked how satisfied he is with his game, the former league MVP offered a glimpse into how much his mindset has changed since the injuries have started to pile up. "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 ... 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." This isn't the first time Rose has talked about his future -- he's been discussing it off and on for months -- but it was probably the most open he's been about his basketball mortality to date. Rose came into the season having played just 10 games over the past two seasons because of knee injuries. He has been more open about the fact he doesn't want to play unless he's "100 percent" healthy but conceded after last week's game against the Bucks that "of course I wasn't 100 percent tonight," drawing the ire of critics who want him to rest until he is ready to stay on the floor for a while. Read more http://espn.go.com/chicago/nba/stor...-bulls-acknowledges-concerns-long-term-health
Well, Rose may be being smart about maintaining his health, but reading this comment,"smart" is definitely not the word that comes to mind. Maybe he actually thought he believed his words when he said them. Maybe he'll defend his words when challenged, but clearly, if his main priority is ensuring that his legs won't be sore at his kid's graduation or at some meeting 20 years from now, he needs to give up this whole professional basketball thing. A couple of his veteran teammates have his back though: Fortunately for the Bulls, Rose plays basketball much, much, much, much better than he speaks.
Yeah, Rose really sucks at PR. Reggie isn't much of a media strategist, and every quote I read from Derrick is some jumbled word salad that leaves me wondering what the hell it is he's even trying to say. I'm usually not sure. His ineptness is cute in its own way, but he hasn't done a lot to help himself in the court of public opinion these last few years.
Also for the record I don't think this quote actually has any significance. I think it's safe to say that Derrick's perspective has changed a bit over the last two years, but I think this is just another halfway thought out, stream-of-consciousness blurb without any greater meaning behind it. Everything I've ever read about Derrick's work ethic is that it's very good, and that he genuinely likes to play basketball. I doubt that's changed. He's just not that bright when it comes to planning his thoughts when a microphone's in his face.
As a non-CHI fan (I totally get why his fans and teammates have his back), it gives fodder to the "out-of-touch" athlete thing. First, when negotiating his contract, he didn't add a 10% discount for the "taking time off to save my body" clause. In his PR (I agree, he's not the greatest) he didn't say "I'm saving myself for June, so I can get a 'ship" (like Wilbon tried to cover for him with). No one challenges Duncan/Pop for that stuff. But he specifically pointed out his post-playing future. He didn't say "I'm not 100% yet, I don't want to risk re-injuring something". I'll never tell a player to suck it up and get back before he's healed. He said he was pulling himself to somehow save his health in his later years. I somewhat sympathize, but he didn't sign up to play 65 games of an 82-game season so that there wouldn't be wear-and-tear. I can't think of too many other lines of work where you can get away with something like that. You damn sure can't in the military. For the record, I like Rose as a player and hope he stays healthy for a long time b/c the game's more fun when he's on the floor. But I think this shows more about his attitude than people are willing to give (because it sounds horrible), and it's something that people can legitimately hold against him.
It's not just that Rose is a poor speaker. I mean, what he said was clear enough. Rose can be kinda flakey. I think a part of him probably is concerned about limping around at his kid's graduation, but obviously that part of him doesn't control his actions...like how he plays the game. What Rose said was so off the wall that his teammates pretty much dismissed Rose's words out of hand. What Rose said doesn't change how I view him as a player, but I'm not sure that I'm in the majority. I don't feel sorry for him though, he's an adult and is responsible for what he says as well as what he does. Sent from my Venue 8 Pro 5830 using Tapatalk
K.C. Johnson @KCJHoop Noah: "It’s frustrating because I feel like he’s sometimes portrayed as something that he’s not." K.C. Johnson @KCJHoop Noah on Rose: "You don’t come back from the injuries he’s come back from without unbelievable commitment." K.C. Johnson @KCJHoop Noah on Rose: "It's disappointing the way you portray him because I know how much he cares about this game. I see it every day." K.C. Johnson @KCJHoop Noah on Rose: "He’s coming back from two crazy surgeries. Obviously, we’re being conservative with him and when things aren’t going right, K.C. Johnson @KCJHoop Noah on Rose: "He has to listen to his body more than anybody. So everybody needs to chill the f*#$ out. I’m sorry for cursing. K.C. Johnson @KCJHoop Noah on Rose: "But I’m really passionate about this. I don’t like to see him down. He doesn’t say that he’s down. K.C. Johnson @KCJHoop Noah on Rose: "But I don’t like it when people portray him and judge him because it’s not fair to him. It’s not."
As KC Johnson said, what Rose said is indefensible, but Rose is not. If anyone should be pissed at Rose, it would be his teammates...they not only aren't upset with Rose, they are his most passionate defenders. So I'm going to take Noah's advice and chill the f out.
That's closer to my take. I understand fans being upset. But if it wouldn't piss off their players, this seems ripe for a paycheck dock by mgmt. Jerry doesn't pay 20m /yr to give a rip about his graduations in the future.
No, I'm not kidding for someone saying they skipped out on work--not because they were injured, not because they were saving themselves for the playoffs, but because they didn't feel like being a cripple later on in life. Any other job...ANY other job...you'd get a paycheck dock for skipping work because you didn't feel like it. I understand why he won't, but that doesn't mean it would be justified.
I was the human resources director for a major ad agency. It was not even a little unusual for a hot creative talent to take a day or even a week off because he/she had to get his/her mind right. How we as a company responded to these situations depended, to a great extent, on just how talented that person was. So what you said doesn't apply to every other job. NBA players should only be compared to the brilliantly talented. It's hard to find reasonable comparables for NBA superstars...maybe major film stars. I'll bet Jennifer Lawrence could take a dump on the director's favorite chair and not get docked.
I don't think he is flakey as much as he is maybe a cross between honest and volatile. I got a kick out of the statements, to be honest. I don't need to hear another pro athlete drone on about taking it one game at a time. I like it when players give real answers. And to what it all means in the larger scheme of things: Rose gave us a little peek into how physically and emotionally draining his rehab must be. I don't think it has any other greater meaning.
How many movies have you seen Lindsay Lohan, Katherine Heigl or Jennifer Lopez in lately? In your agency, did the employee just not show up for work, or did they take (whatever the term is) sick leave/personal time/vacation time/etc? If you on-the-regular let "hot creative talent" not show up for work when required, or for blowing off customers without I can't think of an analogy, but I'd submit that if the hot creative talent was in the habit of not showing up to pitch to clients, and not for any reason other than "thinking about when I'm 40", it's more on line with what Rose is talking about. IMO, your comment about "getting your mind right" would be in line with if Rose said "knee's feeling a little sore, I'm going to take a couple off to get my body right". No one would fault him at all for that. Heck, no one would fault him for pulling a Duncan and saying "I'm not going to go tomorrow, even though I'm pretty healthy, just to limit my exposure to injury before the playoff." But this is deliberately not playing while "healthy" for reasons not dealing with his team or his contract.
I think its best to not really get bent out of shape much regarding what Rose and Team Rose has to say on issues such as these. Rose seems to play basketball hard when on the court. Rose seems to put in a great deal of effort to rehabbing from his injuries. His teammates and coach seem to like him and feel he's putting in the effort needed. As much as we perhaps would like "our" athletes to be frothing and ready to give 110% every game come hell or high water, the modern professional athlete does think of things like brand and long term quality of life. Its best to keep these thoughts to yourself when dealing with the media, but I don't think its much of a reflection on Rose in terms of playing basketball hard. For people that were bent out of shape against Rose for sitting out the end of the season / playoffs when "medically cleared to play" it might give some ammo to what Rose's mindset is. It is somewhat frustrating. But, if you are giving guaranteed multi-year contracts to people, its might not be a dumb move on Rose's part to be very conservative on these matters to preserve long term earning potential and long term quality of life. Frustrating though for the super-fan who wants to see their team win at all costs and devotes a lot of time, energy, money into the franchise they are passionate about. If there is a disconnect between the passion of the athlete and the passion of the fandom, that can spell trouble.
I had something really deep written here. It would have changed everybody's' lives, EVERYBODY. But I accidentally hit backspace while highlighting some text which I think is a shortcut for "back" in my browser, and I lost everything. Just thought I'd share.
I used to do that all the time. Now if I write a long-ish post (or one where I'm putting in a lot of stats or something) I write it in Notepad and copy-paste