A day after Chicago Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau expressed frustration over Derrick Rose’s frequent absences from the court, the former MVP pulled himself from a game.
Rose, scheduled to make $19 million this season, said he felt “tired.”
“Just tired on both ends of the floor,” the Chicago Sun Times quotes Rose. “Offensively, I felt like I couldn’t get to where I wanted to go, and defensively, just the speed of the game, just wasn’t ready for it. Fatigue-wise and just trying to be smart.”
The paper’s Joe Cowley reports that the team initially cited “tightness in the left hamstring” to explain the star sitting out. Maybe they meant “tiredness.”
The 2011 NBA MVP scored two points in ten minutes of first half play. The Bulls could have used him in the second half. The Denver Nuggets won 114-109.
Rose has played in just seven of fifteen games this season. He entered just 49 games the last three years. Earlier this season, Rose startled by offering a unique justification for the absences.
“I think a lot of people don’t understand that when I sit out it’s not because of this year,” he maintained. “I’m thinking about long-term. I’m thinking about after I’m done with basketball, having graduations to go to, having meetings to go to. I don’t want to be in my meetings all sore or be at my son’s graduation all sore just because of something I did in the past.”
The attitude clearly frustrates the head coach of the Bulls.
“Oh I don’t know, Jesus,” Tom Thibodeau responded Monday to a question about Rose’s fatigue in a tight win over the Utah Jazz. “He’s got to get out there and play. I thought he did a lot of good things. You could see he’s not real comfortable with the ball yet, but that will come. When Derrick strings some games together, he’s going to take off. He’s got to go. That’s the bottom line. He’s got to go.”
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