Baffoe: Rose A Gift That Keeps On Giving
By Tim Baffoe-
(CBS) During this blessed season where most of us celebrate the joy and majesty of our lord and savior—gift receipts—all Chicago sports fans can agree on one gift we will probably never want to return: Derrick Martell Rose.
After agreeing to a contract extension that will keep him a Bull through the 2016-17 season, fans find themselves in the unique position of being able to root for not only the best athlete in the city but also the best man who happens to wear a Chicago sports uniform for a long, long time. Not exactly like getting tube socks, huh?
And, yes, Rose is both of those things.
That will piss off more than a few Chicago sports fans (*cough* Blackhawks fans who hate basketball *cough*), but I'm not going into that debate here. You think Jonathan Toews or Jay Cutler are better at what they do than Rose is, fine. You're wrong, but that's okay.
Rose is a guy, perhaps for the first time since I have been cognizant of sports reality and have been able to separate the athlete from the human being, who genuinely seems to deserve every penny he gets. And not just because of his play on the court.
I'm not one to concern myself with or align my loyalties solely to athletes who are also Eagle Scouts away from their jobs. Plenty of bad guys have plied their trades for fans' enjoyment in this town and will continue to do so, and I've been a student of the Seinfeldian School of sports for a long time as far as tying my heart strings to the shoelaces of large, fast strangers.
But Rose is seemingly such a good guy—and I have to qualify the word "seemingly," unfortunately, because good guys seem to break our hearts more and more often these days (yes, ladies, I'm selling out the tribe—we all suck). I'm 99% sure about the character and quality of the Bulls point guard, though, and he has given me little reason to doubt him.
Yeah, he had someone else take his SAT for him in high school, and as an educator I certainly frown on something like that. I also understand that some people are not born to be members of the academic or white collar world—which is all those high school standardized tests measure (and poorly so). And, yes, that is the dirty little inside secret of standardized testing—it makes a sort-of-close-to-the-bull's-eye guess as to whether or not you are worthy of giving a certain institution too much money to be force fed knowledge that for the most part will never serve you in real life except for that which applies to the professional field you choose, and even a lot of that stuff stays in the attic of professional knowledge.
(I'm referring to colleges here, by the way. My high school courses are invaluable, and every one of my current and former students will tell you so because, like any great teacher, I have instilled immense fear in all of them.)
None of that applies to Derrick Rose because A) he was never going to pay for college or actually get a real college education anyway, and B) those tests don't measure a person beyond their ability to process information under the pressure of time constraints and the fear instilled by parents and unfortunately some educators that one's life and worthiness will be ruined without a certain numerical score.
The only pressure and time constraints Rose has to deal with occur in front of thousands of people a night against other freakish athletes doing everything they can to stop him. I'm pretty sure the SAT cannot measure that, no matter how fast that stupid train is traveling from Cleveland to Indianapolis with a westward wind of 25 mph at 7am and oh my gosh my pencil broke what the hell do I do I'm going to fail and have to go to a state school and have mediocre people to network with after graduation and…
The test that measures Derrick Rose the athlete has been aced with an MVP and glaring potential to bring a whole lot of great sports memories back to Bulls fans. The test that measures Derrick Rose the man has been passed off the court and in front of microphones over and over.
His ratio of talent to humbleness has never been seen around here. That was evident in his press conference Wednesday where he thanked everyone he could think of, had an emotional moment where he looked at his mother and said "We finally made it," and kindly fielded some very stupid questions from various media that included unnecessary prodding on where he would spend his new money charity-wise and blithering rambling crap from a local TV sports anchor that Rose could only chuckle at while saltier people wanted the questioner beaten with his own microphone.
Everything that comes out of Rose's mouth is about getting better personally and helping improve the team's play. He shies away from talks of money and puts talk of winning in the forefront. He famously works his ass off year round and has surrounded himself with people who will guarantee his focus never strays, though it seems more and more like a semi truck couldn't knock him of his path.
I do not believe athletes should be role models for kids, but kids being drawn to idolize them is inevitable. There is no other pro I would prefer kids taking after if it has to be so.
Derrick Rose is a special person who happens to be one of the best basketball players in the world. Lucky for us he will also be in a Bulls uniform for a while.
What better gift could a fan ask for?
Tim Baffoe attended the University of Iowa and Governors State University and began blogging at The Score after winning the 2011 Pepsi Max Score Search. He enjoys writing things about stuff, but not so much stuff about things. When not writing for 670TheScore.com, Tim corrupts America's youth as a high school English teacher and provides a great service to his South Side community delivering pizzas (please tip him and his colleagues well). You can follow Tim's inappropriate brain droppings on Twitter @Ten_Foot_Midget , but please don't follow him in real life. He grew up in Chicago's Beverly To read more of Tim's blogs click here.
