Derrick Rose had some pointed things to say about Steve Mills, Phil Jackson and his brief time in New York in his 2019 book, “I’ll Show You.”
The injured Rose was back at the Garden on Sunday with the Pistons, less than a week after another prominent Rose, former super-agent Leon Rose, took over for the fired Mills as the Knicks’ team president.
“From the outside looking in, it just seems like they’re still looking for someone to lead them,” Rose told The Post before the game, which he sat out with a sprained right ankle. “I’m not here, I wouldn’t even know what goes on up there on a day-to-day basis, but from the outside looking in, it looks like they’re stuck in a rebuilding mode again.
“But I do think they’ll have their time. Nobody can be bad forever.”
The Knicks have been horrid for much of the past two decades, with Leon Rose the latest man tabbed to head their basketball operations under owner James Dolan.
Phil Jackson was team president during Derrick Rose’s one season in New York in 2016-17; the former league MVP with the Bulls appeared in 64 games — averaging 18.0 points and 4.4 assists — on a Knicks team that finished 31-51 under coach Jeff Hornacek.
That was Carmelo Anthony’s final season with the Knicks and Kristaps Porzingis’ second year in the league. Rose wrote in his book with longtime Chicago sportswriter Sam Smith, “When it came to the basketball, I knew right away that we were s–t.”
Of Jackson, Rose wrote, “I liked Phil, but, come on, man, you’re still running the triangle? He was still forcing them to run it.”
As for Mills, Rose wrote the longtime team president “was talking all this black-dude stuff with me, like we’re brothers and all this. He’s saying that s–-t, making me think it’s going to make us closer. Come on, be yourself.”
Rose also said last year that he was “surprised” about Porzingis’ trade to Dallas for draft picks and cap space for a run at two max free agents last summer. After Mills and general manager Scott Perry were unable to land big names such as Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and Kawhi Leonard, the Knicks signed seven lesser free agents to short-term deals.
“To each his own, that just wasn’t their time, that’s how I look at it,” Rose said. “Of course a lot of people have got a magnifying glass on it right now. I feel like with all the things that have been said about New York, they’re gonna have their time pretty soon.
“In all seriousness, they’re rebuilding, they’re trying to figure things out. I’ve never been in the situation to be in a front office, who knows in the future, but right now, I really can’t judge it. You never know what’s actually happening in those rooms. But playing here, it was great, even though we were losing. Actually playing on that court, in front of the fans, it was unreal.”
The 31-year-old Rose is averaging 18.1 points and 5.6 assists in 26 minutes per game over 50 appearances (15 starts) for the Pistons this season before spraining his ankle last Sunday against Sacramento.