I'll Show You

by Derrick Rose

  Like the game against Golden State in Thibs’ last season in Chicago. I got a quadruple double. Well, could have—I had the 11 turnovers. It was a game Jimmy didn’t play. Eleven turnovers, Jimmy’s out, a game we’re supposed to lose. They’re beating everyone in their building that season, but we got that one on a buzzer-beater. Those are games I cherish. Not so much for that last shot, but for controlling things, like a straight outdoor park game, just going at one another.

  Let me tell you what I think greatness is in the league. I think greatness is guys who make a certain position special. Like when Charles Barkley came. What did he do? He pushed the ball up the floor. KG pushed the ball up the floor. What happened? Gave them the freedom to move about the floor. Just like any point guard would want. Like Bob Cousy dribbling up the floor. But then they got systematic during the ’80s and ’90s. AI came and look what happened. He was a pioneer. That’s a little bit more freedom. Now there’s guys like James Harden. Tough playing defense on him because of his moves. He knows how to get fouled, too, like D-Wade, and people overlook how strong he is. He’ll make it look kind of simple, but it’s different if you’re out there playing against him. He brings a level of strength that’s rare at that position. Anthony Davis is unique because he has that motor. He can change the game on the defensive side of the floor, too. Dwight, he could run the floor at a time most bigs were slow. Dwight was just an action figure.

  There’s levels of players, but it’s different when you see them as a player does, when you play against them. Fans and media don’t always see the whole game the way the player looks at it. Every player I ever played against at my position, they’re great—that’s why they’re in the league. They’re great players and it’s my job to make it hard on them when I play them. That’s always the way I looked at it, that when you play me you know it’s gonna be a hard game. It’s not gonna be a walkover game. No matter what game I was in. Not like it’s me against you or some battle with talking going on. Just make it hard. If I played bad, then next game I’m gonna go out and play harder. That was always the way I did it.

  * * *

  I did the LeBron recruiting for Chicago. It was a day after practice, and Bron and Chris Bosh and all of them, we got word—everyone heard it around the league—they were together on one of those banana boat things and were about to team up somewhere. Gar Forman, our GM, came to me with the people from the office about putting a video together for Chris Bosh, D-Wade, and Bron. I didn’t fight it. I did the video. I’m sure Bron and those guys saw it. Then this story came out that I wasn’t big on recruiting. Should I have to say that I recruited? That’s where I’m coming from. It’s a lose-lose. I’m not comfortable saying I’m out there recruiting because I respect my teammates. Should players have to do that? It doesn’t seem right.

  When I saw the story was “Derrick doesn’t want to recruit,” I felt like, as my partner in this, the Bulls should have come out and said I’d done it. Like, “We got it. Chill. He cool.”

  They didn’t.

  But I’m the type of guy where whatever you’re saying about me, as long as I’m on the court, I don’t care. I’ll take the hit. I was immature at the time and I didn’t want to say that I did a video because I felt that they were supposed to say stuff like that for me. Maybe they agreed with that story though? Maybe they wanted me to do more? I can understand that, too, but I was doing my stuff.

  I didn’t care who I played with. I feel like I’m just gonna try to get the job done. No matter who is on the floor with me, play the way you can play. You’d think that’s what everyone would want from a player, to give it his all no matter who he’s playing with. That’s the weird thing with all the teaming up guys have done. I’m glad the players have their rights and we can make decisions for our families, but I also like the challenge of showing you what we can do as a team no matter who we’ve got.

  That’s how we felt with Thibs and the Bulls when we had the best record in the league. I feel like as a player my job is to show I’m progressing every year. You see I’m progressing every year, so in my mind I’m showing you—that’s the real recruiting. That’s who players should want to be with. The way I felt was, “I’ll show you that I’m getting better every year, that I’m holding up my half.” Then it’s up to them.

  I never came into it in a way where I started the conversation of getting a free agent, saying you gotta get better players, get this guy, get that guy. I had to get better. It was on me. But there was always someone asking me about what the Bulls should do in free agency. I never came out and said, “This is what I wanna do about free agency.” It was always me being asked. If I wasn’t asked, we would’ve never talked about it. I would’ve just waited like with anything else, until they got someone. They got Booz, Kyle Korver, C.J. Watson, Kurt Thomas—I liked our team.

  And then we got Thibs.

  8

  When Tom Thibodeau got in, that’s the first time I’d seen a coach hold players accountable the way he did. He just doesn’t let up. As a player like myself who doesn’t say much—everyone always wanted me talking, that leader stuff, but like this book, I’m someone who is gonna show you—I appreciated it because it keeps me on point. I don’t need anybody on me like a micromanager, but I respect it because he makes it seem like he loves the game more than you.

  The funny thing about that is he wouldn’t have to say shit. It was you coming in and he’s there at 5:30 in the morning. Like, “What the fuck are you doing?” Or you have practice, you go home, then you’re like, “I’m going to take some guys over here and shoot.” So you go in and it’s like 9:00 pm and he’s still there. Y’all got a game the next day. Like, “What you doing here? We had practice like seven hours ago.” He brought structure to the team.

  You could have an open relationship with him. We talked about everything. He could tell me everything. It was always basketball. He never hid nothing from me about basketball. I just remember it being a hell of a year. I remember smiling a lot. Everybody was enjoying being on the road. That season was one of those things that I’ll cherish, one of those years where you’re number one. You know how it is in the league when you’re having a season like that. You’re gonna get fans following you everywhere. All that type of stuff. You become more of an act instead of a team. It was cool, and we played good basketball.

  We won 62 games that first year, the most in the league, and beat Miami all three times we played them in the regular season. Fun playoff games, too. Each one close, tough, right down to the end, held the scores down in the 80s, 90s. LeBron didn’t play in that first regular season game, but D-Wade was great. Me and D-Wade in the last two minutes, back and forth. Kyle made a big shot and we won. Then it was Lu the next time we played them—big shot, after we were down again. Then beat them that third time when I made a few shots at the end. See, I used to be able to shoot. Ha! Were just trying to win games. Fun games. Things seemed to be going right. No problems, and I only missed one game that season, with, I think, a stiff neck.

  I loved it. Not only were we good, we were also cool enough that we could have a dialogue with one another: “Alright, you missed me on my guy driving to the hole. That was supposed to be a floppy. Next time, be there.” Jo, he’s gonna come out and curse me and tell me. Or Lu was gonna curse me and tell me. Joakim or myself or anybody could talk to Thibs that way. I think that made us close as a team, because in the heat of the moment somebody could get emotional and it was okay. A real team, you know what I mean?

  It’ll throw you off when the person gets emotional out of nowhere. With us, we might have that moment and then it’s, “Okay, what’s the play now? That’s over. We can talk about this after the game.” We calmed it down. “This is the play we’re doing. We’re trapping him on this.” When we were out there, Thibs was the one holding everyone accountable. You didn’t have to go and talk to someone else crazy like that.

  We used to party together. That w
as the team when everybody was together. We had arguments a few times in the locker room, but we knew what was important to the team. Fans and media don’t realize how much that goes on, but if you’re a team and respect one another, it’s good. Sometimes it could be the littlest things. Thibs would be mad at Jo for breaking a play or forgetting the play. Jo actually did that a lot. Jo would break the play and then do something better. It would be a plus. But Thibs, he’s controlling. So he would be on Jo even though things worked out better, like, “What the fuck are you doing!”

  And Jo would be like, “Fuck you!”

  And Thibs would be like, “No, fuck you.”

  No joke, they used to argue like that. But nobody overreacted. We knew they just needed to vent, get it out of their system. They were professional enough to do that and then keep going over the game plan.

  One reason I think a lot of good things ended up happening with me then, like getting the MVP and all that, was that I knew the ball was going to come back to me at some point during the game. I was ready for it. We had Keith Bogans. It was rare to see him shoot two times in a row, and he wasn’t viewed as a shooter. I never thought about teammates that way. I was too young to think about Keith Bogans and how everybody else viewed him in the league or the analysts at that time. I remember saying, “Keith, you’re supposed to be a shooter, shoot the ball!”

  That’s how I looked at anyone on the team. I don’t care who you are. If I put you in the position where you’re open, I want you to shoot and shoot with confidence. And that’s why you saw teammates of mine shoot with confidence. They could miss a majority, but they had that confidence. They flourished off that. The main thing for me was Thibs allowing me to play freely. He was running the offense through me. I didn’t have to force myself on the team. Guys go to different teams and say, “I’m such and such from that team and I shot 25 times over there. So you know what’s gonna happen over here.” I was never that guy. I always felt like I had to get my teammates shots.

  The ball will find you, I’ve always believed that. And in tough games, it’ll find you pretty quick. The fact that guys are scared to shoot? In the playoffs, you see that at the end of the game. Certain guys are like, “Damn, don’t throw it to me!” Why did I shoot four times in a row? Because nobody on the team wants to shoot.

  All of Thibs’ groups were great groups, really. Everybody connected with one another. We pushed one another in practice. But we were just young toward the end there. Needed more veterans on the team. Then by that time, Thibs was mad that he wasn’t getting the players that he wanted and it kind of messed up the mood of the team. And then the media kept coming at me talking about it. But I was like, “I don’t have nothing to do with that. Y’all have something you want to ask them, please ask them.” I wish they would have come to an understanding, Thibs and management, but they never did.

  * * *

  We did think we could have won that season, 2010. I remember the Indiana series to start the playoffs. That really was the first series I was nervous. I wasn’t really nervous for that Boston series when I was a rookie, I guess because that was my first one and, it may sound crazy, but no one gave us much chance. This time it was the big stage. For real. We were on top. It was more like a stage I hadn’t been on, even with the big games I’d played in high school and college.

  I think I did well, but before every game I really do remember being nervous and anxious. I think most of the time guys are, but once you start playing it’s gone. Such a buildup and so many days before the series and after the end of the season. I remember Jeff Foster trying to kill me every time I went to the hole. It was physical. That’s when the league was kind of trying to change that stuff. It was still physical and it was cool. I liked that kind of play. It made me focus even more. Because I’m trying to irritate the other team, trying to make them even more mad. No matter what you’re doing, I’m still killing you. No matter what you’re doing, I want you to feel every play. You’re taking cheap shots, being dirty. Nothin’. We’re still bringing it.

  I think that’s what really comes from playing in Chicago, being in that environment, being in that culture where you have someone at your mercy. You have to kill ’em, or they’ll get you. Grew up playin’ that way. Any chance that you get to destroy someone you have to take it. That’s what makes a guy like Kobe, Kobe. Also getting ready to play someone like Bron and D-Wade.

  I felt like we were still growing. We beat Atlanta and then the one everyone was waiting for: Chicago vs. Miami. Great series and we’re down 2–1 and I had a chance at the end to win Game 4. Missed and we lost in overtime. We held them to the low 90s like we wanted, just wasn’t enough.

  Whenever I get shots like that, last shots, I try to clear my mind. Of course, I don’t hit every one of them, but I feel like I always learn from the ones I missed. Like, “Damn, I shot two of those shots and they went left. So why am I shooting left when it’s the last seconds?” Then, “Alright, when I do my drills whenever I’m working out, I’ll count down 3…2…1 on the last shot of all my drills.” Just so it gets me ready to knock down those shots when I’m in the moment.

  When I was younger, I used to hold on to it, and it kind of handicapped me a little because I worried about the last shot, about whether or not I should take it. It happened a few times where I didn’t know whether to take the shot or not because I was missing them so much early on in my career with the Bulls. So just working on it in the gym. Counting down like a shot clock. When I catch the ball, it’s a shot clock. Over and over.

  By Game 4 with Miami, I was used to it. Didn’t hesitate. Missed and then had one more chance and they put LeBron on me. It’s tough when you have a guy that size, but like I said, I was wishing they’d do that the whole game. They didn’t. I missed, but I had to put it behind me right away. I couldn’t think about it like that. Especially knowing there’s still overtime left. It was just a play to me: I didn’t execute, but there’s another one coming.

  I know people might laugh now and say it’s an excuse and we’re crazy, but ask anyone on that team—Lu, Taj Gibson, Thibs—and they’ll tell you: losing Omer Asik was big. Miami had a problem when we had him paired with Jo and Kurt Thomas. We could play them tougher, and Omer really had verticality that gave them trouble. He got hurt in the third game and that was huge. Played every game that season until then and then he’s out. Again, injuries. We really were closer than anyone believed. And they knew it. We felt they knew we were the team they weren’t going to intimidate.

  Every game that we played against them under Thibs was like that, intense and challenging. You know how playoffs are? Whoever makes the right adjustments, that’s who’s gonna win. And they made the right adjustments. The turnovers—I think I had like seven or eight—were just from overthinking, trying to get us over. I knew I had to score for us to stay in the game. But it was okay. They were trying to make me exhausted out there on the defensive end so I wouldn’t have energy to attack them on the offensive end.

  Then we think we have Game 5 won and they came back quick and just like that, it’s over. We’re thinking we’ve got that, we’re going back to Miami and…what did they score, like 14 points in two minutes? D-Wade makes a four-point play and they’re going to the Finals. That’s what hurt most. Being up that many points and thinking we had a grip on the game and they just made the plays. We were supposed to be that team.

  It did teach me something else, too. That’s when me and BJ started talking about how to finish games in the league. Like, it’s okay for a team you’re playing against to be up like that. Sometimes you don’t mind at all if a team is up 10 on you in the fourth quarter, because then they play a totally different game. Then when you get close they tighten up and lose the game. When he said it to me, I knew exactly what he was talking about. And I was able to affect the game in that way. “Alright, we’re down 14, 16, it’s gonna be tough. Let’s get it to eight with four minutes left.” So
rt of like a horse race where a horse gets tired leading all the way, and if you’re behind you can make a run. That’s how I was going to be looking at it, feeling we would finish games better. Just didn’t know how yet because we were so young. We were getting ready.

  And then came the injury.

  9

  Yeah, the ACL, it was life changing. Right away after the ACL in April 2012, I was emotional in the hospital because basketball was over with. For the time being, anyway. It was done and I thought we were so close the way that season went. But now I had to wrap my mind around the rehab. A long rehab—and I hate rehab. It’s lonely and hard.

  I had to wear a brace for the first four months, had to sleep with it the first three months. You can’t sleep, you can’t roll over. With your partner, you gotta watch whoever’s in the bed. You have to really watch everything around you. I became an expert at it, though, something you don’t want. I asked the doctors right away, “How many times a week do I have to go?” And it was just like I was afraid it would be. Every rehab session I did, I was miserable.

  But I did it because with the proper rehab you kind of bounce back to how you were. I believed that.

  So, you start with weight lifting, which starts at 8:00, 8:30 in the morning. Every day, first thing, head to the facility. Get stretched on the table, mold the scar tissue, do the flexibility, take measurements of your flexibility. Then you start off by getting on the bike to warm up your knee, then start running and pounding. The bike is for circulation. You can walk on the treadmill for five or 10 minutes. Either way, once you get off the bike or the treadmill, you do the deceleration drills, then acceleration drills, which is kind of like a track-and-field workout.