This always had the feel of an icy, bottom-line business decision anyway. The Knicks have been in the market for a legit point guard for years, for decades, and Derrick Rose was available. Rose was looking for a place to start over, the clock already ticking for him to prove he’s still worthy of a superstar payday.
From the moment the Knicks and Bulls consummated this deal in June, there was little sentiment attached to it. Rose didn’t insult anyone’s intelligence by waxing poetic about the mystical lure of Madison Square Garden. The Knicks didn’t pretend they were acquiring the 22-year-old version of Rose, when he was MVP of the league, before his body started to betray him.
“Risk-reward,” is how Knicks president Phil Jackson described the transaction.
“I’m going to let my game speak for itself,” Rose said the day he was introduced.
Starting now, that’s possible, and so starting now the Knicks and Rose can resume what both hope will be a mutually beneficial basketball relationship, even if it only lasts a single season. A jury in Los Angeles returned a swift verdict Thursday, clearing Rose of all claims made by an ex-girlfriend who had been seeking $21 million, charging Rose and a pair of friends had sexually assaulted her in 2013.
There are rarely any positives that emanate from such an encounter, but you must say this much about Rose: Many who face accusations are eager to proclaim their innocence, but are less inclined to seek a day in court to clear their names. Some find it easier to write a check to make these things go away. Rose was adamant, and he faced his accuser, and that meant allowing some private admissions to land on the record and attach themselves to his name forever.
“It was important to prove I did not do what I was accused of, even if it meant publicly sharing very private details about my personal life,” Rose said in a statement, in which he also said he was “thankful” for the verdict.
“I am thankful that the jury understood and agreed with me. This experience and my sensitivity to it was deep. I am ready to put this behind me and focus on my family and career.”
If that won’t matter to road crowds who may ignore the verdict and still chant “Just say no!” that’s part of the deal Rose made with himself. Same thing if Knicks fans will be slow to embrace him based merely on the uncomfortable details Rose copped to.
But we have learned a little something about ourselves as sports fans the past year, for better or worse. Yankees fans embraced the arrival — and mourned the departure — of Aroldis Chapman, and cheered every one of his 100-mph-plus fastballs. Mets fans welcomed Jose Reyes at midseason, and by October were shouting the “Jose! Jose! Jose! Jose!” chants as loudly as they had in 2006.
And both of them had accepted suspensions from baseball based upon incidents of domestic violence, even if neither ever had to face those charges in a court of law.
So even those who may be morally put off by Rose’s choices will likely keep their perspectives and their opinions of Rose confined to the court, in a game, across one season about which Knicks fans have been debating for four months.
A healthy Rose makes them more interesting than they’ve been since the days and nights of Latrell Sprewell and Allan Houston and Larry Johnson. “Interesting” doesn’t always translate to “successful,” but given what the past 16 years have looked like, interesting is a good place to start.
Besides, there is nothing that a Knicks fan can feel or say that will be nearly as inappropriate as what Judge Michael W. Fitzgerald said at trial’s end:
“Best wishes,” he quipped, “except when the Knicks play the Lakers.”