Luol Deng and others against Brooklyn Nets

Luol Deng, my favourite NBA star and his best moment with the Chicago Bulls

Those that know me know that Luol Deng has for a long time been my favourite NBA basketball star, well, not as much now he’s not with the Bulls but still… this is my favourite of his moments. It was so memorable and so exciting and came against the Pacers Game 1 of 2011 NBA Playoffs which ended with Bulls 104 Pacers 99. With the bench mob this has to be one of my favourite periods of modern Chicago Bulls. Anyway in light of the recent trending outcry about big wigs at the NBA being racist – Atlanta Hawks general manager Danny Ferry passed along comments from a scouting report saying like Luol Deng had a little African in him before all shit hitting the fan over at Atlanta.

Deng’s response was as fantastic as ever. Which reminded me of what I loved about watching Deng in the Bulls. Careful, methodical, often  times quiet, but damn – fired up when it counts…

 

It was almost as good as watching him repeatedly school LeBron…

 

ouch…

(The new and improved?) Derrick Rose post knee injury #2

Photo of Derrick Rose dribbling a basketball for the Chicago Bulls

Derrick Rose

I have not seen much of Derrick‘s playing over the last couple of years, I graduated and was no longer able to stay up all night watching live NBA coverage. This, as any NBA fan knows, isn’t why I have been unable to watch DRose.

The 2011/12 playoffs against the 76ers saw Rose suffer a torn ACL in his left knee and miss the entire 2012/13 season. The 2013/14 season saw DRose incur a torn miniscus in his right knee towards the end of November in regular season and miss the entire season.

Derrick Rose as a player

Derrick Rose is a superstar point guard often accused of bending the role. He drives and attacks the paint distinctly squirming, twisting, sliding past and taking it to the rim. Unfortunately (speaking as a Bulls fan) I think the defence has come to understand that Rose will get the three-point plays in the paint so will often stand back, outside of the poster.

But I feel his drive and determination – his aim for perfection – see him often having run the clock down to the last five or six seconds and know that ultimately he can shoulder the burden himself. He can drive the paint and take on the big guys so if the play doesn’t look right then, I don’t know – it sort of seems like a self-fulfilling prophecy. Don’t get me wrong – I don’t think DRose is a selfish player. I think he’s a perfectionist and perfectionists would rather be in control and put pressure on themselves to get things right. I mean if you can do it as good as he can, you can take that risk. Plus the modern day Chicago Bulls are a great defensive team, they just don’t score as highly as some in the Western Conference and Rose is the franchise player who can turn a game around.

What next?

But I think that on return from injury – after having spent two seasons watching, suited, on the bench – Rose may have had that time to reflect and watch, absorb and learn – taking a coaching-like position on every game must have imparted a great sense of strategy in place of having the ball at his palm. I really believe that the risk of taking a third possible career ending injury could push Rose to balance what he does, he already has great basketball intelligence and instinctively plays the chess-like probabilities of out-witting the defence, but this could (alongside his improved three-point game) really make him the fully formed point-guard that bosses the game from the front.