Read the full thing here as well as watch the video which I won't be able to do until later.
The most interesting quotes from this piece:
On trying out for the U.S. national team that will compete in the 2010 world championships and 2012 Olympics:
"That team is way bigger than what you really think it is. The
tradition of the team, the people that played there, the legacy of it,
just competing for your country is way bigger. Hopefully I will make
the team. I played hard. I was out of condition a little bit. But when
I get back in condition, I know they will love me."
It's not an indictment of him per se, but for a young player who has quite a bit to improve upon in order to reach the highest levels of his potential, you just hope he's putting in the time. Not having great conditioning isn't necessarily proof that he's not either especially given the level of competition at these scrimmages.
Shooting and lifting are activities he could have worked really hard on while still losing some conditioning or simply not improving it. Hopefully, he's been hitting those activities hard and just hasn't been focusing on the running as much.
Am I drastically overanalyzing a throw away quote where Rose was likely trying to be a bit humble. Yes. Yes I am.
Some other good quotes at the link including his view on not recruiting 2010 FAs and how he hopes to improve upon his late game opportunities this season now that Gordon is gone. Props to K.C. for actually grabbing some of the more interesting quotes related to basketball that the other stories on the interview passed to focus on the non basketball related content.
I'm much happier to have both.
Filed under: Uncategorized
Tags: chicago bulls, conditioning, derrick rose
This seems like nothing to me. I imagine these Olympic scrimages are pretty intenese, much more like a regular season game or even maybe playoff game. So even if he's been doing a lot of defensive drills his conditioning probably isn't at that level. I could be totally wrong about these scrimages though. Either way it would be nice to here a bit about his defensive workouts. I am a bit concerned that he's loosing shooting contests with children. :)
I'm more than happy to hear about it. August sure is boring in basketball. Thanks to your blog though we all get some bulls news everyday. This has become the first web site I look at whenever I go on the nets.
I am not really worried about this, it sounds like he was doing a lot of shooting and strength work so far and its not like Rose show much signs of fatigue last year.
I'm not worried.
If Rose or any player said they were out of condition, it catches my eye.
But if a coach I can believe says a player is out of condition, then I'm concerned.
Like you said, August is a slow month for NBA basketball.
PS: Does Carlos Boozer have his own reality TV show yet entitled: "I'd love to play for your town" (Subtitled, "Hey, what town is this?")
To give it another angle, I'm glad he's not fully in condition. Think about it, he needs to work on his shot, defensive fundamentals, and strength. None of those are going to give him game ready conditioning. That sort of conditioning would, in fact, take away from his time to be working on those things, or mean he's pushing himself too hard (like he did at Memphis) and be more likely to injure himself.
He'll need to start working on his conditioning soon, but at this point, I'm glad he's not game ready.
We saw him all this week at his bball camp in Deerfield and he showed the kids his rather rigorous workout after which he was sweatling profusely. I think he is gonna be in great shape!