I have no idea what goes on in Derrick Rose's head. I'm not sure anyone other than Rose really knows. What I do know is that Rose has suffered another injury which will prevent him from continuing to reach his potential and also potentially prevent the Bulls team from reaching their potential. Scoop Jackson has a sort of vague idea that he is pushing. He thinks when Derrick Rose comes back the Bulls should just go-for-broke. I'm not 100% sure what all this entails, but it seems to entail Derrick Rose playing all-out and ignoring whatever part of him that wants to hold back and prevent a further injury. It's remarkably easy for a sportswriter who is sitting behind a keyboard to suggest an athlete just go all-out and not worry about his health, because that sportswriter doesn't have to worry about anything other than bleary eyes while staring at his computer screen. Scoop Jackson admits this, but says that Rose should still go-for-broke and worry about the consequences later. The worst advice sometimes come from those who don't have to deal with the ramifications of their own advice. It's a brave man who can suggest another person risk his health in order to achieve a professional goal. Yeah, everyone else should rub dirt on it and continue playing. Easy to say while sitting on the sidelines and not dealing with the emotional, physical, and psychological effects of continuously being injured.
Now what?
There are so many answers to that small yet supremely meaningful
two-word question that there's almost no place to start where any answer
is the right one.
Well, there is a right answer. Go-for-broke NOW. Lay it all on the line and try to win an NBA title while holding nothing back. That seems to be the only right answer Scoop can find. I'm not sure if the Bulls weren't trying to go-for-broke and win an NBA title prior to Rose's injury, but apparently they were missing a certain panache that would satisfy Scoop's need for someone else to put life (okay, maybe not "life) and limb at risk for an NBA title.
With recent concerns over the six weeks Jimmy Butler is likely to miss with a high-grade ulnar ligament elbow sprain and small bone impaction and the unknown return of Taj Gibson from an ankle sprain (he's day-to-day but in a walking boot), the Chicago Bulls
are back to the familiar territory of having to play "next man up"
basketball until at least the opening round of the NBA playoffs.
Other NBA teams have injuries they need to play through as well. It sucks the Bulls lose so many key players, but perhaps these injuries are a reason why ignoring the chance of a recurring injury by coming back from injury too soon isn't in Derrick Rose's best interests. Of course, this column isn't about Derrick Rose's best interests, it is about Scoop Jackson's need for the Chicago Bulls to win an NBA title THIS YEAR.
But with direct, laser-aimed concerns about Derrick Rose
and his possible (and quasi-promised) return to the court before the
playoffs begin, the answer for all parties involved is simpler and far
less unsure than we might think.
It's less unsure than "we" might think? I love knowing how "we" think, as told to me by a sportswriter.
I'm basically saying it's all-out-or-nothing time. It's "we don't give a
damn anymore because we have nothing left to lose" time for both the
Bulls and, more importantly, Rose.
I'm not 100% sure what this means exactly, but it certainly sounds like Scoop thinks the Bulls should just try and win the NBA title this year. It seems he also thinks Derrick Rose should play in the playoffs regardless of whether his injury is healed or not, since he has "nothing left to lose"...except for the continued health of his body for the 2015-2016 season of course. That is unless Scoop thinks the world is ending prior to the start of the 2015-2016 season and so it doesn't matter if Derrick Rose is healthy or not for that season.
It's go-for-broke, full-on-attack, us-against-the world mode. 10X Rule-style basketball. A beast mode of which Marshawn Lynch knows nothing.
This is basically bullshit, hyperbolic writing that lacks meaning without specific examples of how the Bulls can or should "go-for-broke" and "full-on-attack" the NBA. Derrick Rose should play hard in the playoffs, regardless of whether he is healthy or not. Great, what else is included in the Bulls going "10X Rule-style" beast?
For Rose, simply use that final minute of the second quarter of
Chicago's Feb. 11 game against the Sacramento Kings as a capsule: eight
points, 60 seconds. It was as if Rose finally said "Kobe" and turned the
game back into what it had always been to him: His muse.
This was back when Rose was healthy, prior to the injury he suffered that will knock him out until around the time the playoffs begin. See, being healthy is what helps Rose to say, "Kobe" (in saying "Kobe" does Rose mean that he's about to suffer a season-ending injury?...that's what Kobe does in his older age) and take over the game.
Can he get through this season unscathed, uninjured, without setback?
That answer, over the course of the 46 of Bulls' 60 games in which Rose
been able to play, is "no." So now that we know what we know, that's all
we need to know.
Que'?
Derrick Rose can't make it through a season uninjured and that's all that we need to know. So doesn't this mean the Bulls should not count on Rose being healthy all season and go-for-broke with or without him? I wouldn't logically think the answer to this non-question is for Rose to just play injured since he can't stay healthy.
He knows what he knows, and for the remainder of this season, that's all he needs to know.
We are at the point in this column when Scoop Jackson is writing words that he believes to be very deep and meaningful, and they sound deep and meaningful, but they are really mostly gibberish disguised as insight. Confuse the reader, write words that seem meaningful and maybe they will ultimately actually come off as a meaningful. Derrick Rose knows that he is always injured, so he knows he will have a hard time getting through a season healthy. Logically, I would think Rose would accept this and try to play in as many games as he can or simply retire. The way Scoop Jackson looks at it though, this means Rose should accept he's always going to be injured and play through injuries because of NBA titles and such.
So this next phase of Rose's re-re-re-return -- if the Bulls are
honestly desperate to win the Eastern Conference, play in the NBA Finals
and win a championship this season -- has to be in direct correlation
to what we've all learned, discovered and now see to be truth.
Yeah Scoop, but what if what we've learned, discovered and now see to be the truth isn't really the truth, but is a lie that is testing the will of the Bulls team to keep true to what they really know is true and all they need to know? What if Rose's re-re-re-return is merely an example of the truth the Bulls already knew and so what we know now isn't what they knew that they knew, but is all that Rose and the Bulls already knew and have known to be the truth? So this "new" truth isn't the truth but is just another example of what the Bulls already knew and they shouldn't adjust their strategy based on this "new" truth?
No more being conservative, waiting to see what might happen. Throw
caution, concern and care to the Lake Shore Drive wind and worry about
the results and collateral damage later.
This is easy for Scoop to say when he doesn't have to deal with the repercussions of another injury and not being conservative while throwing caution to the wind.
Once the Bulls' roster is whole again, the "next man up" mindset should
seamlessly and immediately be replaced with a "started from the bottom
now we're here" belief (or lie) that if it doesn't happen now for this
team, it is never, ever, ever ... ever going to ever happen.
While possibly true, I'm not sure that Derrick Rose should come back from injury ASAP even if his injury isn't completely healed. The idea the Bulls may never, ever get back here again would be motivation for Rose to come back quickly, or it could be motivation for him to get healthy and hopefully get a chance to get back there, if not with the Bulls, but with another NBA team. It's so easy for Scoop to say "go for it all" while passively suggesting that Derrick Rose not give a shit about his injuries when he's not the one who has to worry about Rose's health for the next 60 years of his life.
For someone who doesn't have to pay Rose for the two years remaining on his contract, this is both easy and reckless to say.
I give no credit to Scoop Jackson for some self-awareness because he's not changing his behavior based on being self-aware. It is easy and reckless for Scoop to say, which is why the suggestion could be seen as somewhat absurd. If the Bulls know Rose can't stay healthy, then they should just not count on him being healthy, not expect him to play injured.
Again, I have no idea how injured Rose is or if he was too conservative with his previous rehabs and recovery from knee injuries. I don't know if another athlete could have returned more quickly or not. I'm not sure anyone knows this. I do know that NBA fans don't have a right to watch Derrick Rose play basketball if he doesn't want to further injure himself. It's shockingly easy to sit back and judge Rose for not playing through injuries, but sometimes injuries are more psychological than physical. Sometimes injuries just don't go away because a player wants to grit it out and there is life after basketball.
But at this stage, in this recurring act of this Theatre of Cruelty,
what do the Bulls have left to lose? The window for the Bulls winning a
championship with this "close to perfect" on-paper squad is very small
as things stand
What the fuck is Scoop even talking about? What does he want the Bulls to do in order to "go-for-broke"? The trade deadline is passed and the Bulls can only hope to get players who have been bought out and are free agents. What the hell does he mean when he says the Bulls "have nothing left to lose" and what action steps does he want them to take? I'm very confused about the specific steps he seems to believe the Bulls should take in March so as to win an NBA title.
As in, this is probably their strongest, if not only, chance. Cleveland is not going to get any worse (even with LeBron James
probably being at the beginning stages of the back end of his prime),
and this is as vulnerable as it's going to be as long as LeBron remains
in a Cavaliers uniform.
(Note: Neither are the Hawks, nor the Raptors, going to get worse. And Paul George is coming back. Neither are the Warriors, nor the Trail Blazers, going to get worse. And Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook are coming back.)
The Bulls have to win the Eastern Conference before they can start worrying about whether the Warriors, Trail Blazers and Thunder are going to get worse or not. A step at a time.
Add to that contract ends coming up (Butler) and age creeping in (Pau Gasol, Mike Dunleavy)
and the continued rumored uncertainty about Tom Thibodeau's future
here, and the Bulls need to treat the playoff run once Rose returns as a
straight-up "can't kill something that's already dead" last stand.
I still don't understand what Scoop is advocating for. Have the Bulls previously not tried really hard to win the NBA title or something? Have their previous playoff appearances resulted in the team just half-assing it in the hopes next year the team will be more healthy? I don't get exactly what Scoop wants the Bulls to do different in the 2015 NBA playoffs that they haven't done in the past...other than tell Derrick Rose to play basketball, regardless of his health.
And from a pure state of mental selfishness, Rose needs to do the same.
In his mind, he should be in nothing less than a final-opportunity state
of consciousness. Anything less wouldn't be fair. To us or him.
This is selfishness to suggest that it wouldn't be fair to Derrick Rose if he didn't come back as hard as he can regardless of his health. Obviously Rose needs to play as hard as he can while on the court, but if he's not 100% healthy then he either shouldn't play or play limited minutes. I know it's not what Bulls fans or Scoop Jackson wants, but I don't believe Derrick Rose has an obligation to incur further long-term injury simply because Scoop Jackson throws some vague words and hyperbole together suggesting it isn't "fair" if Rose doesn't do this.
He has to ask himself: Is the game more significant than the injury? He also has to live with the answer.
Exactly. Scoop doesn't have to live with the answer. Derrick Rose does.
At this point, seriously, what do either have to lose? The Bulls or Rose? If they fall short and don't win, so be it.
Maybe I'm stupid. I don't understand from the Bulls' perspective what they should be doing differently to go all-out and try to win an NBA title. I'm assuming from the way the Bulls team is built and the free agent moves they made in the prior offseason that they are trying really hard to win a title. What Derrick Rose has to lose is that if he comes back prior to being fully healthy then he could incur long-term damage to his body or he won't be able to play during the beginning of the 2015-2016 season due to being injured.
At least all involved (and all watching, invested in and concerned) will know that a Broncos-signing-Peyton Manning
risk was taken for something bigger than the wait-and-see existence
that has been the Bulls organization's life the past three seasons.
The difference being that when Peyton Manning needed surgery while with the Colts he sat out the entire season and then got healthy so that he could play in future seasons at as close to 100% as possible. The Broncos took the risk on Manning after Manning had gotten healthy, they didn't trot him out on the field when they weren't fairly sure his neck could hold up to a full season of playing football.
And when the final buzzer sounds on this Bulls season, whatever is left
on the court and whether or not Rose is still standing, it will be a
source of unmatchable pride worth honoring for however long he is able
to play basketball.
This is just an incredibly over-dramatic statement. This whole column is very, very dramatic and lacks specific detail.
For Rose, it will be the step he needs to take to begin not only the
process back to being who he once was as a player and person, but also
to begin his possible exit from Chicago.
Yes, Derrick Rose should come back from injury and play as hard as he can regardless of whether he is healthy or not so he can begin his possible exit from Chicago. Okay. Because if Rose gets injured again then another NBA team is definitely going to immediately want him.
The burden both on him and for him has become unrealistic, at times unfair and, at this point, too heavy.
Says the guy who is writing a column full of dramatics about this being "all-or-nothing time" and suggesting Rose should go-for-broke and try to win an NBA title, regardless of his health, because that's what Scoop Jackson and (some) Bulls fans want him to do.
Anything less than winning a championship this season, with Rose the
Finals MVP, is just a furthering of one of those Chicago nails deeper
into his proverbial coffin.
So if the Bulls don't win a title and Rose isn't named Finals MVP then Derrick Rose will be considered a failure? Here is what Scoop just wrote about the burden on Rose:
The burden both on him and for him has become unrealistic, at times unfair and, at this point, too heavy.
Then Scoop follows it up by saying anything less than an NBA title this season with Rose as MVP will just make him seem like more of a failure. Apparently the rules of placing a burden on athletes doesn't apply to Scoop Jackson.
His home city has become too unforgiving, Michael Jordan's
shadow too big and Rose too careful for anything good to come out of
what's left of him playing out his contract as a member of the Bulls.
Unless he decides to ball out in his return.
So if Rose doesn't play in the playoffs and then comes back to win the NBA MVP during the 2015-2016 season, the city of Chicago will not embrace him at all? I don't believe you.
It's ridiculous and over-dramatic to say these playoffs are Rose's last chance to win over Bulls fans. If he came back healthy next year and played like he's capable of playing then he would win Bulls fans over again.
He's been so damn focused and concerned about having his basketball life
back he has been unable to "just play." To smile, to laugh, to laugh at
himself, to ball, to be Pooh.
Why have Rose and his doctors been concerned about rehabbing and making sure he's recovered from injuries in the past? They should have listened to Scoop Jackson, M.D. and told Rose to "just play" and everything will fall into place after that. Broken arm? "Just play" and you will be fine.
Which is all the more reason Rose needs to go for it with reckless
abandon and anger when he returns. For the first time in more than three
years, just live and play in and for the moment. This singular moment.
I'm sure if he feels up to it, then he will. Otherwise, I don't see why Rose would want to continue hurting himself to play a sport when he has 60 years left to live and pay for "living in the moment" while being a basketball player. I recognize that nearly everyone wants to see Rose on the court, but going for it with reckless abandon and anger isn't any good if Rose physically, emotionally and psychologically doesn't feel up to doing this. Maybe he's a wimp, who knows?
This moment that's left. Rose needs -- even if for a brief period of
time, and at the expense of missing more time in the future -- to get
"just playing" out of his system ... and back into his life.
These words, "just play" don't really mean anything. I hope Scoop knows this.
Because unless Rose gets back to that point, and until the Bulls reach
that point with him, anything he does will forever be considered less
than zero.
This is a falsehood. If Derrick Rose comes back healthy and plays well then it's not true that anything he does will forever be considered less than zero simply because he didn't win an NBA title for the Bulls. Stop the dramatics, stop the nonsensical writing about "just playing" and "going for broke" when there's really no indication what the hell this is supposed to mean, and finally, stop telling athletes what they are required to do for the sake of their legacy.
Showing posts with label chicago bulls. Show all posts
Showing posts with label chicago bulls. Show all posts
Friday, March 13, 2015
Monday, January 13, 2014
5 comments Derrick Rose Isn't Humble, He's Injured; Another Example of the Sports-Talk Radioification of Modern Sports Journalism
It's all about attention. That's a lot of what is wrong with modern sports journalism and a lot of journalism in general. I don't listen to talk radio. I should say I no longer listen to sports-talk radio because it's all about getting attention and having the hottest sports take. Naturally, a lot of this starts to bleed into written sports journalism as well. This column written by Dan Bernstein states that Derrick Rose isn't humble anymore and he isn't just the hometown kid anymore either. As well as being an example of sports-talk radio journalism, this article also shows the media's fascination with building people up in anticipation of eventually tearing them down. Look no further than Robert Griffin to see how the media goes about building a person up through pushing a false ideal of perfection on that person only to tear the person down when it turns out he isn't perfect and has flaws. But hey, it's about getting attention and Dan Bernstein got attention for this article. Big win for him.
Complaining while not playing is a bad look for someone who has sold a phony reputation as a humble, team-oriented kid.
Derrick Rose doesn't want to rebuild. This is completely understandable. No professional athlete wants to rebuild. No professional athlete wants to be injured two years in a row and watch his team lose while he is on the bench. Everyone is happy when a team wins, everyone is unhappy when a team is losing. Winning covers up flaws a team has, while losing creates flaws where there may not actually be flaws or exacerbates current flaws.
Derrick Rose isn't not team-oriented because he doesn't want to rebuild. He's a human being because he doesn't want to rebuild. The Bulls don't want to sit around and wait for Rose to get healthy and plan around a player they aren't completely sure will come back as their franchise player. Derrick Rose knows the Bulls either (a) want to rebuild and possibly not have him be the centerpiece of the rebuilding plan or (b) rebuild in a way where the Bulls aren't a championship contender when Rose gets healthy. Not looking forward to a rebuild is being human and not in any way non-team-oriented or not humble.
According to a story in the New York Daily News, Rose is now unhappy that the Bulls will have to reconstruct their roster in an effort to win a championship, apparently thinking that such a move would be a waste of his precious time and efforts.
I wonder how Dan Bernstein would feel if he missed a month of work with a health issue, only to return to hear that his co-host and many of his best co-workers were fired? Would Dan Bernstein roll with the punches or be upset while he was out of the office his employer gutted the office? I really, really doubt Dan would just roll with the punches and be pleased. This also wouldn't make Dan Bernstein selfish for not liking that his favorite co-workers were fired. Of course putting himself in Rose's shoes takes too much work, so Bernstein points a finger at Rose instead.
‘Derrick is worried that the Bulls are going to lose what they have,’ said a league source. ‘He doesn’t want to go through rebuilding.’”
This statement may be true/untrue depending on if the league source is a Bulls employee or a guy who works for another NBA team who wants to create drama on the Bulls roster. It's not like that type of thing doesn't happen, especially concerning a report coming from a league source reported in a New York paper. You think the Knicks wouldn't want Derrick Rose or Joakim Noah on the roster in the near future? Who is this league source?
To Dan Bernstein it doesn't matter because anonymous league sources and their quotes are a good way to have a hot sports take and change the narrative around Derrick Rose to one that says he is selfish and not humble.
What does he think they have, and where does he think it’s going? Most importantly, what does he not understand about the primary reason for the Bulls’ current plight?
He's a frustrated basketball player. Again, if Dan Bernstein came back from an extended break and found that his employer had fired many of his favorite co-workers or were planning on cleaning house at some point in the near future, do you think he would be happy about it? I really doubt it. He would be frustrated and upset.
It takes some nerve to call out his employers after they have paid him 30% of their salary cap to miss consecutive seasons.
It takes some nerve to call out a player for not being humble and then seeming to act as if Derrick Rose has gotten injured on purpose.
This is typical behavior from a player who has always done only what is in his personal best interest, everybody else be damned. He’ll take every last dollar, and enjoy all the team-supplied resources for medical consultations, surgeries, rehabilitation programs and various therapists, only to ignore their professional opinions just because he feels like it.
How dare a professional athlete take his own personal health into his own hands and not count on the medical staff on his team to do what is best for him instead of what is best for the team. We all know that the medical staff of a professional NBA or NFL team would NEVER do what is in the best interest of the team as opposed to what is best for the athlete. There are multiple stories of an NFL team's medical staff doing what is best for the team while risking the long-term health of the player. It's not crazy for Derrick Rose to take his own personal health into his own hands.
At this moment, John Paxson and Gar Forman are trying to win an NBA championship more in spite of Derrick Rose than because of him.
Of course they are. Derrick Rose keeps getting in the way of the Bulls winning an NBA title by intentionally getting injured.
It doesn’t help anything that Rose is not among the brightest bulbs, and that he still lives in an insular camp of cronies that is too often at odds with his team.
Again, Derrick Rose has a career to worry about and sometimes that career is at odds with what his employer wants for him. I guess Dan Bernstein wants Derrick Rose to live in an insular camp of cronies that does exactly what the Bulls tell him to do? That's the better option?
It was understandable for him to be shielded from Englewood gangs and other unsavory influences enough to get him a fair shot at a pro career, but enough already. He’s 25 years old, in his fifth NBA season, is worth a quarter-billion dollars and has a family of his own,
Which is why he has an obligation to his family and himself to not blindly trust the Bulls are going to do what is best for him and why he isn't completely pleased the Bulls are looking to rebuild. No player likes rebuilding, especially with the uncertainty of coming back from two straight seasons of suffering major injuries.
Reggie Rose is a clown, using the guise of brotherly love to aggrandize himself after a failed career as both player and coach that was marked by bizarre, immature behavior. Bulls officials have become increasingly frustrated by continued communication problems with Rose due to Reggie’s invasive influence, with one source telling WSCR “It’s like talking to a wall.”
Perhaps the best advice came from Charles Barkley last February, when he opined on TNT that instead of complaining about Bulls business, Reggie should “shut the hell up.”
Maybe Reggie Rose is a clown. Maybe he doesn't have Derrick's best interests at heart. Derrick Rose may be guilty of poor judgment in trusting his brother, but he isn't guilty of not being humble and being selfish for continuing to trust his brother.
Another problem is the presence of BJ Armstrong as part of Rose’s group as one of his agents. Armstrong’s personal bitterness toward Paxson and the Bulls runs long and deep: he’s still angry that he didn’t get the chance to replace Jerry Krause as GM and Paxson did, and the two former teammates are not on speaking terms. As long as he is allied with Rose there will be an undercurrent of conflict, with any comment or action subject to interpretation regarding ulterior motive.
How interesting that Dan Bernstein makes a comment saying any comment from Derrick Rose, B.J. Armstrong or John Paxson is subject to interpretation regarding ulterior motive while writing a column where Bernstein takes comments by an anonymous source in a New York paper and doesn't at all think about the source's ulterior motive. Bernstein feeds this undercurrent of conflict by choosing to interpret comments and Rose's actions in the way he does.
Derrick Rose needs to grow up, wise up, and seize control of his image and career before he and the bozos around him fritter away a mountain of good will, scattering his civic capital to the winds.
This is absolutely possible. Rose may need to trust different people, but his trust of his brother and his agent doesn't make him not humble.
He says he’s all about winning a championship, but then he carps about rebuilding when it appears his team is trying to do what it must to give him that very opportunity.
But Rose may not see rebuilding as the solution to winning a championship. Therein lies the problem. Rose knows the Bulls were close with him on the roster and healthy and doesn't want anything to change. It's human nature to feel this way.
And it’s certainly not humble, so we can stop with that. The quiet superstar is quiet not because he is naturally self-effacing, but because he is bad at talking. The local-kid-made-good storyline is over.
Okay then. Time to tear him down as quickly as possible.
He likes to let his game speak for him, but then refuses to play even when instructed to by doctors.
Let's not forget that Rose sat out the entire 2012-2013 season, which many felt was too long, and he still suffered another knee injury less than a month into the 2013-2014 season. Any athlete who has been injured knows he/she needs to come back only when that person feels comfortable having recovered from the injury. The idea Rose didn't play when "instructed to" by the Bulls' doctors doesn't seem like a terrible idea in retrospect considering Rose suffered another knee injury the following season.
He opts for cartilage repair that requires a longer-term recovery, and then lacks the basic understanding of how that changes the team’s title trajectory.
Right, because Rose got injured intentionally and then selfishly chooses a recovery process he thinks will bring him back to 100% health (which will benefit the Bulls greatly by the way).
As always, the Bulls are trying to take care of themselves while Derrick Rose tries to take care of Derrick Rose on the Bulls’ dime.
The Bulls can take care of themselves, but Derrick Rose isn't allowed to take care of himself. Got it.
Sadly, the two endeavors don’t always seem to be working toward the same ends.
Derrick Rose is concerned the Bulls are rebuilding because he thinks this negatively affects his goal to win an NBA title, while the Bulls are possibly thinking of rebuilding so they can win an NBA title. It seems the two sides just have different ways of reaching the same end. It's just Rose isn't humble anymore because that's the new narrative required to tear him down.
Complaining while not playing is a bad look for someone who has sold a phony reputation as a humble, team-oriented kid.
Derrick Rose doesn't want to rebuild. This is completely understandable. No professional athlete wants to rebuild. No professional athlete wants to be injured two years in a row and watch his team lose while he is on the bench. Everyone is happy when a team wins, everyone is unhappy when a team is losing. Winning covers up flaws a team has, while losing creates flaws where there may not actually be flaws or exacerbates current flaws.
Derrick Rose isn't not team-oriented because he doesn't want to rebuild. He's a human being because he doesn't want to rebuild. The Bulls don't want to sit around and wait for Rose to get healthy and plan around a player they aren't completely sure will come back as their franchise player. Derrick Rose knows the Bulls either (a) want to rebuild and possibly not have him be the centerpiece of the rebuilding plan or (b) rebuild in a way where the Bulls aren't a championship contender when Rose gets healthy. Not looking forward to a rebuild is being human and not in any way non-team-oriented or not humble.
According to a story in the New York Daily News, Rose is now unhappy that the Bulls will have to reconstruct their roster in an effort to win a championship, apparently thinking that such a move would be a waste of his precious time and efforts.
I wonder how Dan Bernstein would feel if he missed a month of work with a health issue, only to return to hear that his co-host and many of his best co-workers were fired? Would Dan Bernstein roll with the punches or be upset while he was out of the office his employer gutted the office? I really, really doubt Dan would just roll with the punches and be pleased. This also wouldn't make Dan Bernstein selfish for not liking that his favorite co-workers were fired. Of course putting himself in Rose's shoes takes too much work, so Bernstein points a finger at Rose instead.
‘Derrick is worried that the Bulls are going to lose what they have,’ said a league source. ‘He doesn’t want to go through rebuilding.’”
This statement may be true/untrue depending on if the league source is a Bulls employee or a guy who works for another NBA team who wants to create drama on the Bulls roster. It's not like that type of thing doesn't happen, especially concerning a report coming from a league source reported in a New York paper. You think the Knicks wouldn't want Derrick Rose or Joakim Noah on the roster in the near future? Who is this league source?
To Dan Bernstein it doesn't matter because anonymous league sources and their quotes are a good way to have a hot sports take and change the narrative around Derrick Rose to one that says he is selfish and not humble.
What does he think they have, and where does he think it’s going? Most importantly, what does he not understand about the primary reason for the Bulls’ current plight?
He's a frustrated basketball player. Again, if Dan Bernstein came back from an extended break and found that his employer had fired many of his favorite co-workers or were planning on cleaning house at some point in the near future, do you think he would be happy about it? I really doubt it. He would be frustrated and upset.
It takes some nerve to call out his employers after they have paid him 30% of their salary cap to miss consecutive seasons.
It takes some nerve to call out a player for not being humble and then seeming to act as if Derrick Rose has gotten injured on purpose.
This is typical behavior from a player who has always done only what is in his personal best interest, everybody else be damned. He’ll take every last dollar, and enjoy all the team-supplied resources for medical consultations, surgeries, rehabilitation programs and various therapists, only to ignore their professional opinions just because he feels like it.
How dare a professional athlete take his own personal health into his own hands and not count on the medical staff on his team to do what is best for him instead of what is best for the team. We all know that the medical staff of a professional NBA or NFL team would NEVER do what is in the best interest of the team as opposed to what is best for the athlete. There are multiple stories of an NFL team's medical staff doing what is best for the team while risking the long-term health of the player. It's not crazy for Derrick Rose to take his own personal health into his own hands.
At this moment, John Paxson and Gar Forman are trying to win an NBA championship more in spite of Derrick Rose than because of him.
Of course they are. Derrick Rose keeps getting in the way of the Bulls winning an NBA title by intentionally getting injured.
It doesn’t help anything that Rose is not among the brightest bulbs, and that he still lives in an insular camp of cronies that is too often at odds with his team.
Again, Derrick Rose has a career to worry about and sometimes that career is at odds with what his employer wants for him. I guess Dan Bernstein wants Derrick Rose to live in an insular camp of cronies that does exactly what the Bulls tell him to do? That's the better option?
It was understandable for him to be shielded from Englewood gangs and other unsavory influences enough to get him a fair shot at a pro career, but enough already. He’s 25 years old, in his fifth NBA season, is worth a quarter-billion dollars and has a family of his own,
Which is why he has an obligation to his family and himself to not blindly trust the Bulls are going to do what is best for him and why he isn't completely pleased the Bulls are looking to rebuild. No player likes rebuilding, especially with the uncertainty of coming back from two straight seasons of suffering major injuries.
Reggie Rose is a clown, using the guise of brotherly love to aggrandize himself after a failed career as both player and coach that was marked by bizarre, immature behavior. Bulls officials have become increasingly frustrated by continued communication problems with Rose due to Reggie’s invasive influence, with one source telling WSCR “It’s like talking to a wall.”
Perhaps the best advice came from Charles Barkley last February, when he opined on TNT that instead of complaining about Bulls business, Reggie should “shut the hell up.”
Maybe Reggie Rose is a clown. Maybe he doesn't have Derrick's best interests at heart. Derrick Rose may be guilty of poor judgment in trusting his brother, but he isn't guilty of not being humble and being selfish for continuing to trust his brother.
Another problem is the presence of BJ Armstrong as part of Rose’s group as one of his agents. Armstrong’s personal bitterness toward Paxson and the Bulls runs long and deep: he’s still angry that he didn’t get the chance to replace Jerry Krause as GM and Paxson did, and the two former teammates are not on speaking terms. As long as he is allied with Rose there will be an undercurrent of conflict, with any comment or action subject to interpretation regarding ulterior motive.
How interesting that Dan Bernstein makes a comment saying any comment from Derrick Rose, B.J. Armstrong or John Paxson is subject to interpretation regarding ulterior motive while writing a column where Bernstein takes comments by an anonymous source in a New York paper and doesn't at all think about the source's ulterior motive. Bernstein feeds this undercurrent of conflict by choosing to interpret comments and Rose's actions in the way he does.
Derrick Rose needs to grow up, wise up, and seize control of his image and career before he and the bozos around him fritter away a mountain of good will, scattering his civic capital to the winds.
This is absolutely possible. Rose may need to trust different people, but his trust of his brother and his agent doesn't make him not humble.
He says he’s all about winning a championship, but then he carps about rebuilding when it appears his team is trying to do what it must to give him that very opportunity.
But Rose may not see rebuilding as the solution to winning a championship. Therein lies the problem. Rose knows the Bulls were close with him on the roster and healthy and doesn't want anything to change. It's human nature to feel this way.
And it’s certainly not humble, so we can stop with that. The quiet superstar is quiet not because he is naturally self-effacing, but because he is bad at talking. The local-kid-made-good storyline is over.
Okay then. Time to tear him down as quickly as possible.
He likes to let his game speak for him, but then refuses to play even when instructed to by doctors.
Let's not forget that Rose sat out the entire 2012-2013 season, which many felt was too long, and he still suffered another knee injury less than a month into the 2013-2014 season. Any athlete who has been injured knows he/she needs to come back only when that person feels comfortable having recovered from the injury. The idea Rose didn't play when "instructed to" by the Bulls' doctors doesn't seem like a terrible idea in retrospect considering Rose suffered another knee injury the following season.
He opts for cartilage repair that requires a longer-term recovery, and then lacks the basic understanding of how that changes the team’s title trajectory.
Right, because Rose got injured intentionally and then selfishly chooses a recovery process he thinks will bring him back to 100% health (which will benefit the Bulls greatly by the way).
As always, the Bulls are trying to take care of themselves while Derrick Rose tries to take care of Derrick Rose on the Bulls’ dime.
The Bulls can take care of themselves, but Derrick Rose isn't allowed to take care of himself. Got it.
Sadly, the two endeavors don’t always seem to be working toward the same ends.
Derrick Rose is concerned the Bulls are rebuilding because he thinks this negatively affects his goal to win an NBA title, while the Bulls are possibly thinking of rebuilding so they can win an NBA title. It seems the two sides just have different ways of reaching the same end. It's just Rose isn't humble anymore because that's the new narrative required to tear him down.
Friday, April 15, 2011
6 comments NBA Playoff Primer
Maybe six weeks ago I saw Sanan put 34 on the Heat in the first quarter and it was something silly like 34-12 at the end of one. At that moment I made my call that Sanan would win it all. After all, Duncan led teams had done this four times before, and I don't think those teams ever started 45-7 or whatever it was. Spurs won 61 games this year. In 2007 they won 58 and were a third seed, 2005: 59 and a second seed, 2003: 60 and a first seed, they were the first seed in 1999 too, but on pace for less than 61 wins. So this, based on all the evidence we have thus far, is the best incarnation of the Spurs. They have by far the best coach (anyone who can make Matt Bonner into a deadly rotation player is basically Gandalf), they are as experienced as anybody, and probably have the best offense in the Western Conference. I don't really see how anyone could confidently pick against them, especially with all the flaws in their competition.
I do think the champ will come out of the West, the East is a complete mess. Really, when you get down to it, when you ignore the need for sportswriters to make a fuss over a nearly wholly irrelevant regular season, the Lakers are the same fucking team they were in October. If I told Octo-you that the Heat would win less than sixty games and Boston would lose Perkins for the playoffs, you couldn't have put your money down on the Lakers quick enough. The Lakers have been playing possum in the playoffs for a few years now. Remember the Yao/TMac Rockets series? OKC last year? For that matter, Phoenix last year? For the Lakers to do it, it will require this group to make their fourth consecutive NBA Finals trip. The last time someone in the NBA did that I was 1 year old. And that was a relatively young 1985 Lakers squad. Everyone here besides Bynum (and MAYBE Gasol, though I think he is) is past their peak, and have played 313 games in the last three years. Oh, and Bynum has yet another injury of indeterminate severity...again. Nevertheless, I think they should be the objective favourites, sort of obviously so, if we can just get the Chicken Little's to shut up for a second.
I don't think Dallas seriously scares anyone. I've heard the argument from many sources which boils down to "THEY HAVE DIRK!", which has been true for twelve years now. Unequivocally that is not enough, and this team is substantially weaker than previous versions. And they are playing very poorly.
OKC have been very trendy, for a very long time. My big issue with the Thunder is this. They have two scorers. It's almost Iversonesque how much they rely on Westbrook and Durant. What happens if Durant's effect is minimised? Tony Allen, Ron Artest, Trevor Ariza, Shawn Marion, Nicholas Batum, there are some wing stoppers out there in the West and there's just no plan B for this, still basically inexperienced team. Durant has not been as spectacular as last year and while I could see OKC beating, say, Sanan maybe, I cannot fathom them beating Sanan, LA and Miami, say. Not with such a concentrated offensive attack - they can be gameplanned for. I'm also not thrilled with the coach against Pop/Jackson/Stan Van (who I rate highly) etc.
Speaking of coaches I am not high on, Erik Spoelstra is a joke. Honestly, in the vein of what happened out West with the Lakers, this team has been over scrutinised all season, and the fact that Spoelstra is still "trying to work things out" when he has two of the best five players on the planet, and another player better than the best player on half the teams in the NBA...you're a shit coach. League average coaching sees the Heat win more than 58 games, especially considering how regular season friendly their roster is. Then there is the fact that Miami just haven't beaten these teams. They are 8/11 against higher seeds in both conferences this year. They split against the Knicks and went 3-1 against the Hawks. They also split against both Portland and Denver. 17/18 against teams in the top six in either conference - a losing record. For the sake of comparison, LA, with one less regular season win, went 18/12 against the same competition. We're one Dwyane Wade fall from this team being irrelevant, LeBron hasn't had a good postseason in his last three tries and they have no post presence at either end of the floor, critical for playoff success. But if it sounds like I'm hating on the Heat (yes, proudly) I like them a lot more than the C's or the current flavour of the month, the Bulls.
The hype meter on MVP thief (following Kobe robbing Paul) Derrick Rose and his Chicago Bulls has gone to 11. They have four losses since February 9th (28-4 including their last nine straight) and I think this has birthed the move from "great season! team on the rise!" to "OMFG FAVOURITES IN THE EAST!". 17 of those games were against teams not in the playoffs (16-1) and four of the others were against the Pacers (a 37-45 team), Westless Hornets (wascaly wabbit!) and Philly. They also played Memphis, but I think that's a really good team, so I'll throw that out. Look, they've had an excellent season. Rose has clearly taken it to another level and more than anything, they are extremely professionally coached. It's all great from that perspective. If I had to describe Chicago I would use this word - clean. They play clean, they don't make bad mistakes, they execute and they stick to their gameplan. That is insufficient at this time of year. Basically, for the Bulls to win it all they'd need to completely revolutionise playoff basketball. The book says - winning a championship is a gruelling, multiyear, piecemeal process unless you add a Shaq/LeBron and Boozer ain't that. For God's sake, only two teams have won the West since 1998! It's an insiders club and the Bulls are a year away, everyone is getting a bit carried away from only partially relevant regular season data. Derrick Rose hasn't even won a postseason series yet, and experience does count at this time of year. Collectively all the contenders have them lapped several times on this measure.
The Celtics just made a ridiculous trade. It's especially unforgivable considering how much time they spent jawing about "never beaten with our starting five" thing. Last year feels like...fluke is a bit strong, let's say swansong for the Celtics. Could they draw an unfocused LeBron again? Sure, they could. Not very likely though is it? And they are old. And their one indispensible, young superstar is shooting 43% after the all star break (50% before it) with his assists dropping from about 12 to 9.5. This is particulary relevant because Boston does not hit treys (26th), get to the line (20th) or hit the offensive glass (last, 1.5 rebounds less than anyone else in the league). And these are season long rankings, it would be worse if we just looked after the break. It's a broken offense, with aging players, who traded their centre (on a defensively minded club) for one of the most ill-equipped playoff players I've ever seen. Has Shaq even played recently? Could see the wheels falling off badly.
It's for these reasons I quite fancy the Magic and Howard. They've done it before, have a truly one of a kind player (no one is remotely like Howard in the league) in, historically, the most important position in the playoffs. They are well coached in my estimation, and have a very substantial chip on their shoulder. The only time they get spoken about at all is how shit they are. This is the only team that went to the East Finals the last two years - they can fucking play. Frankly, the East looks as open as it has been in years, and a team like Orlando could slip through with the surprise factor on their side. There are lots of reasons they won't iwn it, don't get me wrong, but they are almost coma-level slept on at the moment, and as I hope I've demonstrated, their opponents are just (or nearly) as flawed.
Of the lower seeds, only Memphis and Portland intrigue me. Remember how New Orleans started 11-1? They are 35-35 since, and are without their second best player. Their offense is also borderline retarded. Marco Belinelli and Trevor Ariza will be starting on the wings for the Hornets (combined for 21.5ppg all year) and their last start they were topped by 32. Taking away West, no one on this team averages above 16ppg. I shouldn't even have to start with Indy and the Sixers have a shocking matchup with the Heat (3-0 in regular season) who just live to beat the 76ers of the world by 20 points. New York is abysmal defensively, and that is a disqualifier at this time of year and we know exactly what Atlanta can and can't do after this four year playoff run, which has revealed that their eight year plan or whatever finishes with them not remotely close to the ring. Depressing. Denver are also non qualifiers, reference 2004 Detroit if you want to, but that was a terrible, terrible conference (this was in the New Jersey years) and basically every starter was better than anything the Nugs run out there. Portland's size intrigues me, and unlike Memphis, there is some 1% chance they could take this to the house. McMillan is a superb coach and this is about as good as Portland's team (as it takes the floor) has looked in two years. I love their presence and physicality inside and think Aldridge should be a walk up winner of most improved this year. He might be a top 10 player, or will be this time next year. The Grizz are also strong on the interior and are a better defensive team. Put it this way, I'm a lot more excited about the Grizzlies this year than I was about OKC last year. They are in the process of locking Randolph up and have a tremendous young core. Imagine what they'd be like with a fully fit Rudy.
So, in summay, my socially filtered, acceptable pick is Lakers/Heat. My more brazen, purely individualistic "make a splash" pick is Spurs/Magic.
I do think the champ will come out of the West, the East is a complete mess. Really, when you get down to it, when you ignore the need for sportswriters to make a fuss over a nearly wholly irrelevant regular season, the Lakers are the same fucking team they were in October. If I told Octo-you that the Heat would win less than sixty games and Boston would lose Perkins for the playoffs, you couldn't have put your money down on the Lakers quick enough. The Lakers have been playing possum in the playoffs for a few years now. Remember the Yao/TMac Rockets series? OKC last year? For that matter, Phoenix last year? For the Lakers to do it, it will require this group to make their fourth consecutive NBA Finals trip. The last time someone in the NBA did that I was 1 year old. And that was a relatively young 1985 Lakers squad. Everyone here besides Bynum (and MAYBE Gasol, though I think he is) is past their peak, and have played 313 games in the last three years. Oh, and Bynum has yet another injury of indeterminate severity...again. Nevertheless, I think they should be the objective favourites, sort of obviously so, if we can just get the Chicken Little's to shut up for a second.
I don't think Dallas seriously scares anyone. I've heard the argument from many sources which boils down to "THEY HAVE DIRK!", which has been true for twelve years now. Unequivocally that is not enough, and this team is substantially weaker than previous versions. And they are playing very poorly.
OKC have been very trendy, for a very long time. My big issue with the Thunder is this. They have two scorers. It's almost Iversonesque how much they rely on Westbrook and Durant. What happens if Durant's effect is minimised? Tony Allen, Ron Artest, Trevor Ariza, Shawn Marion, Nicholas Batum, there are some wing stoppers out there in the West and there's just no plan B for this, still basically inexperienced team. Durant has not been as spectacular as last year and while I could see OKC beating, say, Sanan maybe, I cannot fathom them beating Sanan, LA and Miami, say. Not with such a concentrated offensive attack - they can be gameplanned for. I'm also not thrilled with the coach against Pop/Jackson/Stan Van (who I rate highly) etc.
Speaking of coaches I am not high on, Erik Spoelstra is a joke. Honestly, in the vein of what happened out West with the Lakers, this team has been over scrutinised all season, and the fact that Spoelstra is still "trying to work things out" when he has two of the best five players on the planet, and another player better than the best player on half the teams in the NBA...you're a shit coach. League average coaching sees the Heat win more than 58 games, especially considering how regular season friendly their roster is. Then there is the fact that Miami just haven't beaten these teams. They are 8/11 against higher seeds in both conferences this year. They split against the Knicks and went 3-1 against the Hawks. They also split against both Portland and Denver. 17/18 against teams in the top six in either conference - a losing record. For the sake of comparison, LA, with one less regular season win, went 18/12 against the same competition. We're one Dwyane Wade fall from this team being irrelevant, LeBron hasn't had a good postseason in his last three tries and they have no post presence at either end of the floor, critical for playoff success. But if it sounds like I'm hating on the Heat (yes, proudly) I like them a lot more than the C's or the current flavour of the month, the Bulls.
The hype meter on MVP thief (following Kobe robbing Paul) Derrick Rose and his Chicago Bulls has gone to 11. They have four losses since February 9th (28-4 including their last nine straight) and I think this has birthed the move from "great season! team on the rise!" to "OMFG FAVOURITES IN THE EAST!". 17 of those games were against teams not in the playoffs (16-1) and four of the others were against the Pacers (a 37-45 team), Westless Hornets (wascaly wabbit!) and Philly. They also played Memphis, but I think that's a really good team, so I'll throw that out. Look, they've had an excellent season. Rose has clearly taken it to another level and more than anything, they are extremely professionally coached. It's all great from that perspective. If I had to describe Chicago I would use this word - clean. They play clean, they don't make bad mistakes, they execute and they stick to their gameplan. That is insufficient at this time of year. Basically, for the Bulls to win it all they'd need to completely revolutionise playoff basketball. The book says - winning a championship is a gruelling, multiyear, piecemeal process unless you add a Shaq/LeBron and Boozer ain't that. For God's sake, only two teams have won the West since 1998! It's an insiders club and the Bulls are a year away, everyone is getting a bit carried away from only partially relevant regular season data. Derrick Rose hasn't even won a postseason series yet, and experience does count at this time of year. Collectively all the contenders have them lapped several times on this measure.
The Celtics just made a ridiculous trade. It's especially unforgivable considering how much time they spent jawing about "never beaten with our starting five" thing. Last year feels like...fluke is a bit strong, let's say swansong for the Celtics. Could they draw an unfocused LeBron again? Sure, they could. Not very likely though is it? And they are old. And their one indispensible, young superstar is shooting 43% after the all star break (50% before it) with his assists dropping from about 12 to 9.5. This is particulary relevant because Boston does not hit treys (26th), get to the line (20th) or hit the offensive glass (last, 1.5 rebounds less than anyone else in the league). And these are season long rankings, it would be worse if we just looked after the break. It's a broken offense, with aging players, who traded their centre (on a defensively minded club) for one of the most ill-equipped playoff players I've ever seen. Has Shaq even played recently? Could see the wheels falling off badly.
It's for these reasons I quite fancy the Magic and Howard. They've done it before, have a truly one of a kind player (no one is remotely like Howard in the league) in, historically, the most important position in the playoffs. They are well coached in my estimation, and have a very substantial chip on their shoulder. The only time they get spoken about at all is how shit they are. This is the only team that went to the East Finals the last two years - they can fucking play. Frankly, the East looks as open as it has been in years, and a team like Orlando could slip through with the surprise factor on their side. There are lots of reasons they won't iwn it, don't get me wrong, but they are almost coma-level slept on at the moment, and as I hope I've demonstrated, their opponents are just (or nearly) as flawed.
Of the lower seeds, only Memphis and Portland intrigue me. Remember how New Orleans started 11-1? They are 35-35 since, and are without their second best player. Their offense is also borderline retarded. Marco Belinelli and Trevor Ariza will be starting on the wings for the Hornets (combined for 21.5ppg all year) and their last start they were topped by 32. Taking away West, no one on this team averages above 16ppg. I shouldn't even have to start with Indy and the Sixers have a shocking matchup with the Heat (3-0 in regular season) who just live to beat the 76ers of the world by 20 points. New York is abysmal defensively, and that is a disqualifier at this time of year and we know exactly what Atlanta can and can't do after this four year playoff run, which has revealed that their eight year plan or whatever finishes with them not remotely close to the ring. Depressing. Denver are also non qualifiers, reference 2004 Detroit if you want to, but that was a terrible, terrible conference (this was in the New Jersey years) and basically every starter was better than anything the Nugs run out there. Portland's size intrigues me, and unlike Memphis, there is some 1% chance they could take this to the house. McMillan is a superb coach and this is about as good as Portland's team (as it takes the floor) has looked in two years. I love their presence and physicality inside and think Aldridge should be a walk up winner of most improved this year. He might be a top 10 player, or will be this time next year. The Grizz are also strong on the interior and are a better defensive team. Put it this way, I'm a lot more excited about the Grizzlies this year than I was about OKC last year. They are in the process of locking Randolph up and have a tremendous young core. Imagine what they'd be like with a fully fit Rudy.
So, in summay, my socially filtered, acceptable pick is Lakers/Heat. My more brazen, purely individualistic "make a splash" pick is Spurs/Magic.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)