Joakim Noah Explains Why Derrick Rose Means So Much To Chicago

It was the game that you guys won in Boston, remember Derek left and that was his second year and it was pretty

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that was his, obviously, his first big moment in the playoffs was that something you could see at that moment like, this is well, this is, this is. Who will this guy be? So did you know that after the first game like this this is a little different than maybe you expected? No, I knew it, we knew it before, we knew it during the season during the regular season, that he was special, he, he, I always will. never forget when Vinnie down there says, uh, we're playing against Steve Nash, Steve Nash is the MVP, um, playing against Phoenix and we're watching a movie and um, and Vinnie says, uh, Kirk, you got, you got Steve Nash and There it says, no.

Not him, I have Steve Nash and he goes no, our best ball, our best ball. The defender is Kirk Heinrich. Kirk Heinrich, you're defending Steve Nash and Derek, who isn't, is painfully shy. No, I have Steve Nash, he's like me. not running away from any confrontation and everything you know well every minute and the whole game he is like that, that's how he wanted to be special from the beginning and people, just because he was quiet, thought he was like a really humble child. no, him, his dreams and the way he carried himself was like he was a big dreamer, he thought he was, he knew he was great, he knew he was destined for greatness, there's a lot to talk to Derek about, um, and something you said. uh, before for me you felt like at any time, before or after an injury, with Derek on the court, there was hope, there was hope that you could win, there was hope that you could win a championship.

I think in some ways he also represents that therefore. a lot of people in Chicago, if that makes sense, um when he was before he got hurt in his guy, I guess he had a very short lived Prime, unfortunately in terms of his athleticism, certainly not in terms of his game because he continues to play. high level basketball, but was there a specific move, a specific dunk, you know, a transition play or something that you think is above the rest? I mean, one in particular, no, it was for me, it was more like, okay, you get a defensive rebound and then you pass it to the guy and then within two dribbles, he's the first one down the floor with the ball.

I mean, I haven't seen anyone else do that before, you know, I like to get defensive rebounds and maybe make a couple of dribbles. Myself, that's what I like to do, but then I also realized that I was playing with you, you know, the fastest guy I had, like a Leia pack that was crazy, left hand, right hand, That was the way I was doing it. The fear he put in the people who played against him, the best. He saw fear in his eyes all the time and I was fine because he was quiet, he was a killer, for me personally, I thought more, you know?

I was loud, you know, I played like, uh, like a real, this guy was just calm, collected all the time, just level-headed, no moment was too big for him and it was just amazing to have a floor as a General. that yeah, for me it's the tie, just dunking when he dunked on Gordon Rogers, that's how he screams, yeah, oh, he's mate, one of the best competitors, I love going against him, it was great, now Derek Derek was, he was special , and even so. I mean, it's surprising to me too, not only do we, I just mentioned hope, but like we, uh, you see the popularity of it, even now, uh, you know, if it's t-shirt sales, it's out of season. and was among the top five. ten votes for the All-Star break What do you think it's about?

You know if it was his game, his story, his personality, that there was something that just captured people and, as a teammate, you probably have a good idea of ​​what kind of capture he captured. you're your passion and your love of playing with him, well, I think first you know he was a hometown kid, so he was from the south side neighborhood and you know what he, he, looked and was, was, was, is from Chicago. You know, some people say they're from Chicago, they're not really from Chicago, from there, they're from the suburbs, you know, there's a lot of them Northbrook Westbrook, wherever he's from, he's from the South Side neighborhood, so he was, it was Chicago and I don't care about his career at his peak, if you're from Chicago, you want him to be the Bulls' number one pick, having that building block the way he did and um, no, hope It was real and hope in the whole city and what was so beautiful is that you know he was he, he was a tremendously shy guy, so you didn't, you didn't.

I don't see arrogance in him in the way he carried himself because he was shy, yes, but even though in his mind he said I want, I am, I'm cool, he didn't, he, he didn't talk like that, you know. Wasn't he going to come? He acted like he was a legitimate superstar, but he acted completely different than everyone else and you know when you talk about stardom and being so young and having to deal with so many things. people just you know so

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attention so many people telling you how great you are in your hometown also in your hometown um the way he handled it was something that as teammates we could be very proud of you know I I was like me, this guy is this.

The guy's helpful, you know, he's not going to go to practice with, you know, glass glasses on and you know he was just cold, he just wanted to be with the guys, like you know, he was cool with that, so I was there. . I haven't seen many who have dealt with that kind of stardom and they don't really want it, you know, it's legit, although I don't, oh, I don't want it, but, you know, but I'm secretly secretly on Instagram exactly yeah, Well, I was going to ask about him, looking back now a little bit, you know we haven't had him in the program yet, but the amount of mental toughness it takes to get through after the injury, next year they talk about, you know , the media people and everyone make comments about his body, but they don't really know anything about it, they're just talking, but then you know he gets hurt again, you know, and we've had a couple of guys that have recently They've talked about this and Grant is another one, it's like your body is breaking down and you're one of the best athletes in the world, there's nothing you can do about it, how frustrating is that. but to go through an experience like that over the course of two or three years and then come back and have a really good career, I mean, it's still in the middle of it, it's still in the middle of it, so we don't even know what's next. but just liking him wasn't like he had that career and then he left so it takes a level of mental toughness just to get back to that point no I think that and I think that's why the people you know that's why he He's one of the champion people because he went through that and you know there were a lot of people in Chicago who turned against him because he didn't play again that year and you know you're in every commercial, you just signed a big contract with Adidas and you're in every commercial.

Adidas commercials like you know the comeback and the comeback and this and you're like you don't feel ready to play. You know a lot of people you knew giving him that high praise. it's like I guess the MVP is the gift and the curse, you know, it's a gift because you're the youngest MVP of all time, but it's a curse because you have to deal with very high scrutiny all the time and he had to you do it. I know how to deal with that, uh, ACL in a playoff game where, personally, for me it was like that year we just lost in the Conference Finals to Miami and we had improvements, we were hungry and we were ready for anything. that all that smoke and you know, unfortunately we couldn't get back to it and it's like it shows that you can't take any of this for granted because that's how I learned from the whole experience, it's like you can't take anything for granted in this league because just like that, everything changes.