Derrick Rose: The Real Scandal

“…my mom, she never let anything distract me when I was in grammar school [or] high school. She never let me think of myself as bigger than anyone else.” Derrick Rose

NBA player Derrick Rose has been getting a lot of heat lately for some apparent youthful mishaps. I read enough to know it’s much ado about nothing. What I find scandalous is that buried within the bullshit-I was only able to find ONE sentence that mentioned that the Chicago Bulls babe was hosting his first annual Derrick Rose Basketball Camp.

It may appear that I look at the world with Rose-colored glasses, and in this case I certainly do, but generally my glass is half-empty, its only when the water line rises-as is the case with Rose’s activities-that I notice the glass is actually half full.

Rose hosted his first annual Derrick Rose Basketball Camp at Joy of the Game in Deerfield, Illinois. Kids aged 9-18 joined him for the four-day session that offered hands-on coaching from Derrick and other instructors.

Judging by the photos, the reigning NBA Rookie of the Year gave all the kids in attendance an experience to remember. It’s just too bad there isn’t one quote from Rose about his camp experience …on his website, there’s an older interview he did with ESPN where he was asked: ‘Do you want your legacy in the city to be just about basketball?’ His answer: “No, not just about that. Also about helping where I’m from, the community. Just to let them know that hope is still there. Don’t give up. In my era, where I’m from, I only had Donald Whiteside. He’s from Englewood and he’s the only one that came out of Englewood. Other than him, I really didn’t have anyone else to look up to that was from my area. So in seeing him, I never gave up hope, just kept playing and then I realized that I might have a future in basketball.”

He also spoke about what he’d like aside from a wicked hoops career: “Definitely doing more things with some kids. NBA Cares stuff, charity stuff. I really think about that a lot because they really look up to us.” Thank you D-Rose…hold your head high and keep my glass half full. For more info on this mighty-mighty fine 20-year old, visit his website at D Rose Hoops.

As always, thanks for reading. Delinda@athlebrities.com