Derrick Rose hasn’t played in a regular season NBA game in a bullet. He’s just getting healthy enough to practice, but his brother isn’t wasting anytime laying the groundwork for an eventual Windy City departure.
For Reggie Rose to choose now to blast Chicago for not improving the team at the trade deadline, chump the current players that Rose has to lead and create more turmoil amidst an already touchy situation, is idiotic and ill-timed.
This ain’t Philly. Reggie Rose isn’t Marcus Vick and the Bulls – who have fought tooth-and-nail to stay relevant while Rose rehabs his golden knee – can do without the brotherly love.
Rose needs to check his big brother on this. He’s publicly back-peddled on Reggie’s rant, but he needs to get in Reggie’s ass behind closed doors too. This isn’t the deadly streets of Englewood on Chicago’s South Side. Rose isn’t using training wheels to get to the stadium. He’s a big boy, who can speak for himself and charter a private jet and land on the roof of the United Center if he chose.
The entourage complex seems to affect family members of NBA stars quicker than anyone else. These days, it’s almost commonplace for the extended mouth-pieces of certain stars to start believing their guy is bigger than the game, and deserves LeBron James-style, hand-delivered titles.
I get that Rose, Boozer and Deng aren’t exactly Miami’s Big Three. But when adidas is paying Rose nearly $200 million and the Bulls are paying him another $95 million to get busy, then getting healthy, returning to the court, satisfying fan hunger and earning that contract should be first priority. Leave the construction of the team to VP Jim Paxon and GM Gar Forman.
Kyrie Irving, John Wall and Kemba Walker have legitimate beefs about playing with inferior rosters. They’d trade their suspect casts for Rose’s squad in a heartbeat. Most people within the Chicago community don’t fault Derrick for this, but what effect will it have on the guys he has to enter battle with?
Despite the recent trend of big-time players handpicking potential championship teams, the fate of Rose’s knee and the future of Chicago basketball are entwined together like dreadlocks. Now is not the time to create division by allowing your big-mouthed bro to regurgitate dinner table banter.
