The Original Kid Cairo wrote:
jimmypasta wrote:
My point is Rose is a sensitive soft puss. I give him 30 games before he clutches his back and drags that into next season.
Man, stop being stupid about it. Before last year, his toughness wasn't in question.
IMHO, Derrick's toughness/heart should never be in question. If there's one champion-caliber trait that you've gotta give Derrick, it's heart cuz the kid has that in abundance. Going back to the ECF dance with the Heat in 2011, Derrick stepped up and took all of the blame for the series loss.... and he was right. For better or worse, Derrick surveyed the situation and didn't see a way that the team could beat the Heat without him going superman, so hey did and they did and it turned into a (predicted) 4-1 loss. I remember after the game in his presser he was insisting that you put the series loss on him, he apologized to his teammates for ball-hogging, and he moved on from there.
In terms of his actual game, whether it was saturday night or before the injury.... Derrick plays with a lot of heart. He's not afraid to go into a situation with low expectations and try his hardest to turn it into a positive. Hell, in the pacers game alone he purposely went up and challenged hibbert in the hole ~3-4 times. He stood there and took a solid charge in transition like he wasn't worried about his knee at all. When he could have easily pulled up for ~12ft jumpers all day long (HINT HINT DERRICK, THERE'S SOMETHING TO ADD TO YOUR GAME) he was consistently penetrating to the hole with reasonable success, which was always his game in the first place.
The kid played his ass off through a bunch of injuries in 11-12 and was still leaping with reckless abandon up ~15+ to the pacers in round 1 of the 2012 playoffs.... he went as hard as he could go until his knee gave out, and now he's back and stubbornly/marketingly/whateverly playing that balls out aggressive game that he's been known and loved for his whole time here. Following twitter during #TheReturn I noticed all of the chicago sports talking heads officially proclaiming him back, and some (drinky) even went as far to say that there are to be no more questions of the knee cuz Derrick is 100.0% back and don't you have any contrary opinions...... that is, unless Bernstein tells you otherwise circa 1pm =D
So yeah, if there's one thing you can't question with Derrick it's his heart/courage/etc..... It's easy to get caught up in the hoopla of last year's #NonReturn and be like "WTF U PUSSY GET OUT THERE" but in the end if Derrick comes back as near to 100% as he seems to be then who gives a fuck cuz it's not like the Bulls were going to win with a ~75% Derrick last year anyways.
_________________
Curious Hair wrote:
Les Grobstein's huge hog is proof that God has a sense of humor, isn't it?