Chicago Bulls point guard Derrick Rose has been out of the NBA for more than a year. He’s spent each day recovering from a torn ACL. However, we expect he has been keeping up with the game.
We expect that he knows the Heat won the Finals, LeBron James won Finals MVP and that Rose would naturally—like most people in the world—think James is the best player on the planet. Right? Wrong.
The 2010-2011 MVP did a word-association interview with CNN’s Pedro Pinto. So what name did Rose associate with, “Best Player in the league right now?”
“Derrick Rose.” When Pinto laughed and asked him if he was serious, Rose—without changing his blank facial expression—said, “Yes.”
Although many believe this isn't true, Bulls fans are hoping he plays like the best player in the league this season.
Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau expects his point guard to be active in traning camp and play the regular starter minutes in preseason.
"There will be an adjustment period, but I'm not anticipating there being any problems," said Thibodeau last week, according to ESPNChicago.com. "His overall strength is terrific. He's put a lot of work into his body. I know he's anxious to get out there and play. He's played some pickup but not a lot, but he feels great, and that's the most important thing."
"We'll see once we get to training camp, and we're going to have an opportunity to get some work done in the fall, but we have to keep in mind he's been out an extended amount of time," added Thibodeau. "So the preseason -- and we look at training camp as the entire month, not just a week -- we'll move him along accordingly. We'll see what he can handle. I think there's going to be some rust initially, but I fully expect him to get back to [being] the player we all know that he is."
Rose didn’t totally forget about James during the interview. Pinto asked who was the toughest person to defend.
"I would have to say LeBron," said Rose. "A 6-foot-8 guy that's 250 [pounds]. What do you think?"
