He Gone
Stephen A. Smith joined the guys of Mike & Mike on ESPN Radio this morning. When asked what he expects to happen next in the ongoing Rose saga, Smith give Knicks President Phil Jackson his two cents.
“I expect him to complete his season with the new york knicks and be up out of here…Derrick Rose is a really nice guy if you talk to him, he’s a pleasant individual…But the one knock against him is that he’s been entirely too sensitive.” – Stephen A. Smith
Sounds like Rose’s bloom in the Garden will be over after just one year. Smith continued to hammer Rose for his poor decision making and weak will.
“You are a professional athlete. You are a grown man…There’s simply no excuse-unless you were incapacitated-I don’t care what your emotional state of mind was. You have a job…Think about a teenager that has a job but doesn’t want to go to work or something happens. What do they do? They pick up the phone. They tell somebody. For Derrick Rose not to do that was bad enough.”
“You are a professional, but you come across as a bit weak. That’s just intolerable when you talk about a guy making the kind of money that he’s making. He doesn’t give you the impression that he’s somebody that can be relied upon…all because of his mental makeup.” – Stephen A. Smith
Assuming that the Knicks decide to part ways with Rose, he will likely have multiple free agency suitors despite his declined level of play. But it’s hard to imagine any of those suitors offering the 28 year old a max deal. Between the knee surgeries, the PR nightmares and the mediocre stats, he’s worth nowhere near that kind of money.
Bad Timing
If there’s one way to find empathy for Rose in this situation, it’s the timing of Begley releasing his sourced information about the point guard wanting a max deal. Unlike his final season-opening media session in Chicago (when he inexplicably started talking about free agency money completely unprompted) Rose didn’t bring up dollars when talking to the media in New York yesterday. He didn’t come back from being AWOL and make it known that he wants a max deal. Even Rose isn’t that stupid. He apologized to his teammates and the organization, and tried to move on.
You have to wonder if Begley’s report, along with Stephen A. Smith’s long-winded rants on the radio this morning, were purposefully placed messages to Phil Jackson. Most Knicks fans (Smith included) blasted the Rose trade in the first place, and it’s clearly not working. Jackson may be struggling in his front office position, but he’s not a complete idiot. He must know the best move is to let Rose walk, and he doesn’t need to be told so from the media or fans.
The clear cut loser in this situation, despite Knicks fans’ growing frustration with Jackson, is Rose. He’ll be chased out of New York. Even worse, his public label of a selfish, money-grabbing bust just got re-stamped to his forehead with a fresh layer of ink. It’s not all Derrick’s fault. Sometimes timing is everything. These are the worst of times for Chicago’s native son.
