"Every rose has its thorn
Just like every night has its dawn
Just like every cowboy sings his sad, sad song
Every rose has its thorn."
If you have yet to figure out, from reading other entries to "Snap.Shot." I am a basketball fan; worse yet, I am an NBA basketball fan. There are many basketball fans in the world, but it seems that "March Madness" is much more popular than "'May' be this will finally be over in June." (The NBA season lasts a long time, and when your team is in the hunt it's great, when they are out, most tune it out.)
About 8 years ago, the city of Chicago knew the Bulls were going to get a draft pick that would be better than previous years, it was because they had missed the playoffs. That placed them in the lottery with a chance, be it all remote, for them to get a top pick. The odds…bad.
But, that night, the winds shifted and sure enough the Bulls landed the #1 pick for that year. They had a choice between two players, Michael Beasley and Derrick Rose and wisely they went with Rose: he was a Freshman from Memphis who had grown up in Chicago and was "perceived" as the best in the nation. He did come with a little controversy, it dealt with SAT scores, but all in all, who cares about grades when you are drafted in the NBA?
So here comes D-Rose and he shoots out of a canon like he's about ready to take MJ's legacy and kick it to the curb. He was the MVP in 2 years and was the one who was going to take the team to the promise land. Well, we all hoped he was…but keep in mind, it takes more than one person to hoist the trophy.
Then came the playoff game against the Philadelphia 76's a couple of years later. A minute or so left in the game, he goes down, and game over. We were in horror, but optimistic that like any horror movie it will eventually get better when we leave the theater.
It didn't.
Unfortunately it happened again, and then a number of events/comments started to change what was a sure to be legacy. Chicagoans started to get impatient, they started to question, they wanted to know, "What was our hero doing?"
Move forward to 2016 and we learned.
He had other plans. Some were interesting…he said he wanted to test free agency as he thought he deserved more…the other was to spend more time with his son and not be a cripple when his career was over. I can understand the appeal of wanting to spend time with your son in the off season, but to tell fans of this desire was far from something they wanted to hear, especially when it was in the middle of the season.
Wednesday the story came to an end. Rose was traded to the New York Knicks—a team that I do not root for and never will! So whereas I was a D-Rose fan, and will remain one, I believe this is a page out of the Bulls record book that can be turned, we are off to bigger and better things. Bigger for sure—with the trade they got some really BIG players. (In size that is.)
The photo above was one of my prize shots from early in D-Rose's career; I was in Milwaukee, the Bulls were playing the Bucks, and sure enough he takes off from the free throw line and flies toward the basket. My trusty Nikon was there every step of the way. I looked at the photos right after and thought—-"I hope this fun never ends." Wednesday night it did.
Thanks for stopping by.
