Derrick Rose is a tough dude. He plays hard and drives to the hole aggressively. One thing he doesn’t have, is size. At 6’3″, he is bound to get beat up with his style of play.
In the fourth quarter of yesterday’s 100-94 overtime victory over the Detroit Pistons, Charlie Villanueva hammered Rose across the nose on a flagrant foul. Rose was obviously not happy (although from the chart above it would be hard to tell) and after the game, he was still upset with Villanueva and shouted at him from the bench.
After the game, he vented a little about his situation. From ESPN.com
“I was mad,” Rose said. “I’m sick and tired of people trying to take cheap shots at me. You got to say something.”
This comes after being fined $25,000 last month for comments following a March 12th game against the New York Knicks.
“I’ve gotta be the only superstar in the league that’s going through what I’m going through right now,” Rose said at the time, referring to a lack of foul calls in his favor. “But I can’t say too much about it.”
Really? He is the only superstar who gets hammered when he takes it to the hole? Didn’t Dwyane Wade have a whole advertising campaign centered around getting knocked down and getting back up over and over?
I understand he is upset, and it has to be frustrating for the reigning MVP to be missing so many games due to injury, but isn’t complaining about it going to have the exact opposite effect? Don’t you think opponents are going to see this as a perceived weakness and try to drop him and hope it knocks him off his game? Does he think the officials are going to be more vigilant when he drives to the rim?
I don’t advocate playing outside the rules, but sometimes if their guy takes down your superstar you have to go right back at them. Instead of complaining about it, why isn’t Noah or Boozer going in there and hammering one of their guys? As long as its clean, what’s wrong with a little retaliation?
And to think it only happens to him is ludicrous. Just recently Russell Westbrook mugged LeBron James on a fast break by pulling him down by the shoulders.
Earlier in the season, Kendrick Perkins tried to shove Blake Griffin into the first four rows (presumably in retaliation for this).
Even in last nights heated Knicks-Heat Game, Tyson Chandler was called for a flagrant foul when he hugged LeBron James as he drove to the hoop.
The difference in these cases is that James and Griffin are giants compared to Rose. Maybe its time Rose learn to adapt his playing style, much like Wade has, to make sure he has a lengthy career.
Another interesting part of the story, Derrick Rose is afraid of needles and refused to get stitches on the cut opened up by the hard foul.
Would be interesting to see what people would say about guys who get the “soft” label, like Chris Bosh or Pau Gasol, if they were afraid of needles. Come to think of it, imagine the field day Skip Bayless would have if these Rose comments came out of the mouth of LeBron James.