If you somehow missed the end of the Bulls/Cavs game last night, check it out:
In a piece for SBNation.com, Chicago native Ricky O’Donnell writes:
It’s impossible to grasp just how polarizing Derrick Rose has become in his hometown over the last four years unless you’ve lived your entire life in Chicago..the guy who once single-handedly willed the Bulls to so many unlikely victories — that player is long gone…In his place grew something like a more erratic version of himself. Rose was occasionally explosive and yet consistently inconsistent.
It has been frustrating to watch (and read and hear about) Derrick Rose’s supposed comebacks over the last four years, all of which have been short lived. The saga must be absolutely maddening for Bulls fans – the guy was electric in 2011.
But then O’Donnell goes on to write:
When Rose hit that shot, it wasn’t about redemption so much as it was about vindication..Here’s Derrick Rose, knees rebuilt, game redefined, winning a playoff game against LeBron James and the Cavaliers on a last-second shot. It seems too good to be true. For once, it isn’t.
I have a hard time buying into the romanticism of all this. Yeah, Rose was really, really good last night. His last second shot won the game for the Bulls, albeit, it was a shot that was off the mark by about 2 feet and got the benefit of a lucky bank. (Rose looks like he’s back to his old form in the lane, but he still has a lot of improving to do from outside the arc: He jacked up 5+ three point attempts per game in the regular season and only hit on 28%.)
So let’s hold off any declarations of vindication. For now, let’s just enjoy the fact that a former NBA MVP is looking more like his old self, because the NBA is more fun when Derrick Rose is playing like Derrick Rose.