Just Like Pippen, Playing For Team USA Helped Rose
Derrick Rose's 2010 season is going better than anyone realistically expected. Well maybe anyone but Rose himself who, on media day, wondered why he couldn't win the MVP award this season.
Most people didn't expect that Rose would develop this quickly into one of the elite players in the league. In only his third season he's earned a starting spot for the NBA All-Star game. He's the first Bulls' player to do that since Michael Jordan in 1998.
"I certainly think this summer played a big role in that development," Bulls' beat writer K.C. Johnson said on the Jason Goff Show.
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Rose was a member of Team USA in the summer's FIBA World Championships in Turkey. Throughout the Team USA training camp, Rose and Boston's Rajon Rondo were considered the top two point guards on the team. Ultimately coach Mike Krzyzewski chose Rose over Rondo and the rest, as they say, has been history.
"I remember writing a story this summer," Johnson said, "where I talked to Scottie Pippen about his first stint on the Dream Team. People forget that even though Scottie had won a couple championships at that point, that Dream Team was kind of his coming out party."
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Pippen talked about how playing on an huge stage with a team full of the NBA's best players gave him confidence. Just as the Dream Team stepped up Pippen's game and showcased him to the rest of the league, last summer did that for Rose.
"Derrick has expressed similar feelings about what that summer experience on Team USA meant to him," Johnson said. "So I think it's just been a progression. Not only from that international exposure, but also just being in the league and going, 'wow, I am one of the best players in the league.' And not many people in the league can stop this guy and I think it's been a natural progression."
