And the cheering stopped and some of the hangers on faded away though the friends who helped cause a huge problem probably remained because he most likely wasn’t smart or tough enough to get rid of them. What mostly remained were memories and some hopes though those too weren’t much. Such will be the fate of Derrick Rose and thinking that he deserved better is a mistake.
Rose has shown an alarming lack of judgement and made a mistake that may still cost him prison time. He used to be so big and now he is so small that even Jerry Reinsdorf, who won championships with clueless Kim Jong-un friend Dennis Rodman, no longer wanted him around. Rose was the hope, the dream, and the light and now he’s nowhere close to even being a great player who never won a championship but who mostly conducted himself with class like Dominique Wilkins. Russell Westbrook once sought him for guidance and now, if he’s smart, doesn’t return any calls or texts from Rose or from his entourage.
The Knicks are 12-10 so far this season and Rose has been okay depending upon your definition of “okay”. But he makes way too much money to just be okay. His assists are nothing compared to the elite or even good point guards and haven’t been for a long time. He doesn’t compensate for not being a good passer by being a scorer like Irving. He isn’t good on defense and this season he hasn’t been good on the road or in losses.
Some think that Rose still has the juice and that kicking him while he’s down is unwise. Nobody is kicking Rose and whatever juice he might have he’s hiding from everybody and it isn’t showing up in any kind of greatness. Master of psychological warfare Phil Jackson took a flier on him because he had little to lose and Rose rewarded him by preparing for this season by spending a lot of time in court because if he hadn’t have he might have had a verdict go against him which would have cost him a lot of money. Alas, like Bryant, he dodged a bullet but paid a lot of money in lawyers fees. Unlike Bryant, he won’t be leading a NBA team to any championships in the aftermath. He isn’t street smart or street tough because if he was either he wouldn’t have been involved in the alleged sexual assault mess. He’s been coddled forever and that shows in everything he does. We are witnessing a tragedy that, if he isn’t very careful, will only get worse.
Kevin Harlan does play by play for NBA games on TNT and if you like Marv Albert, you like Kevin who sounds a lot like Marv. Marv is in at least one Hall of Fame and makes a ton of money and broadcasts high profile game and if those were all that mattered in defining a man Marv would be a great guy. Hopefully Kevin hasn’t made mistakes as damaging as Marv’s and is living a righteous life. He doesn’t add a ton of insight while calling game and Marv never has but mediocrity and a “Yes” catch phrase have made Marv a legend and isn’t America just great?
This piece was written by Jim Swigart. Jim has been seriously writing for at least eight years and previously wrote about music for a now defunct online magazine for about two years. Jim briefly blogged about sports for an online site and currently blogs weekly about sports on his own site.
His academic background is in business and math. He has done numerous work tasks besides writing. My interests include exercise, sports, music, and politics.
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