Sports Saturday
How should we speak of the brilliance of Derrick Rose, the phenomenal young point guard for the Chicago Bulls who is bringing back memories of that other Chicago Bull? At 23, Rose led his team to the most wins this past season (62-10) and will begin playing in his first conference championship series tomorrow against King James and the Miami Heat.
Rose is a player who can slide through the smallest crack in a wall of defenders or, somehow, twist his body in midair to avoid an offensive foul as he banks the ball off the glass. Or, with blistering change of pace, go around the defensive wall and then do a reverse lay-up. I have seen him dribble through five defenders on a fast break. Although only 6’3″, he has the elevation to dunk over players six inches taller than he is. He can also block their shots.
Maybe it all comes down to his name.
“What’s in a name?” I hear you ask. “Wouldn’t a rose by any other name smell as sweet?”
Okay, humor me as I dive into name symbolism.
“Derrick” gets at his power. On his dunks, he’s like an oil derrick, plunging the ball through the net with inexorable power. He’s as tough as a derrick as well: although opposing players make sure he pays a price for blowing past them, he picks himself up off the floor without protest.
The toughness can be explained. He was raised in one of South Side Chicago’s most dangerous neighborhoods.
And now let’s look at “Rose.” He is elegance in motion, his short-ranger jumpers kissing off the glass at impossible angles. His rainbow floater is a thing of beauty, arching over the outstretched arms of tall defenders Furthermore, by the time the ball swishes through the basket, touching no iron, he is underneath the basket (just in case a tip-in is necessary), catching it and tossing it casually to the ref.
Derrick Rose. Toughness and grace. Opposites conjoined.
A classic is being written. Let’s call it, with a nod to the medieval French romance, Le Roman de la Rose.
Watching Rose in the first two rounds of the playoffs as he proceeded to systematically take apart first the Indiana Pacers and then the Atlanta Hawks, I could only shake my head. In the end, all metaphors come up short. Derrick Rose is what he is. Or to quote Gertrude Stein,
Rose is a rose is a rose is a rose.
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