“It’s kind of like they were searching for something that wasn’t there,” Derrick Rose says as he appears in “One and Not Done,” the latest edition of the ESPN Films 30 for 30 series which debuts tomorrow night at 8 PM central.
“And Cal, we talked numerous times about it, and he was telling me, just focus on your career, and I’ll take care of the rest and that was that.”
D. Rose has making a lot of headlines lately, from his “questionable” belief that he deserves to get/is seeking a NBA $150 million max contract this summer to his suffering yet another season ending injury. The current New York Knicks and former Chicago Bulls point guard will be coming off his fourth knee surgery in five years. Rose needs to focus on finishing an entire season without getting hurt first.
“One and not Done” flashes back to a time when Rose still had no ceiling on his worth and potential, having not yet seen his knee joints exceedingly ravaged by repeated serious injuries.
Go here for our in-depth review of this masterful must-see film. Go here for more detailed information on and a preview trailer of the film. “One and Not Done” Director Jonathan Hock granted us an exclusive interview, and you can read/listen to that over at this link.
As the documentary reminds us, there were numerous red flags surrounding the Derrick Rose SAT. He took it in Detroit for some reason, and right after ward he was at a Pistons playoff game where William Wesley, a.k.a. World Wide Wes was “running the show.”
Calipari points out in the film that Memphis went through a stress test of academics and amateurism before the 2008 NCAA Tournament and Rose was in fact cleared.
“My thing is I’m not throwing any kid under the bus,” Coach Cal said.”
He’s in the NBA. He wouldn’t talk to them (the NCAA), I’m not going to tell him to talk, and they said by not talking to us, we are going to invalidate his test score and you played with an ineligible player.”
The NCAA never even attempted to prove that Derrick Rose cheated on the SAT, nor did they ever even bother to try and verify that Memphis knew about any supposed malfeasance. While there were plenty of reason for doubt regarding the Derrick Rose SAT score, the NCAA acted as sole judge, jury and executioner, without even bothering to give Memphis a trial to begin with.
Just like that, the Tigers’ then record 38 wins and their national title game appearance were vacated. Now it’s worth mentioning that vacating is an essentially stupid, and pretty much toothless penalty. However, it reminds us what a total joke the NCAA and the antiquated system that they stubbornly cling to truly is.
They don’t have anywhere near enough compliance offers to actually investigate wrongdoing and then enforce their anachronistic rules and regulations.
When they do bring the hammer down, it’s all arbitrary and capricious. If there’s any one thing that I hope the viewer takes away from Hock’s doc, it’s this- the NCAA and their indentured servitude style labor system is the real enemy here, not Calipari.
Derrick Rose says in the movie:
“It hurt at first because I was like why are they attacking the entire team or Cal, when they could easily just do something to me, but basketball is a team sport so they had to attack the record.”
While Rose may have said and done a few things over the years to make himself an unsympathetic figure, and Calipari has a polarizing style that turns many people off, this is definitely not an instance of “there’s no one to root for.”
Rooting against the NCAA is something we can all get behind.
Unless you’re Mark Emmert.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, partnered with FOX Sports Engage Network. and News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times and NBC Chicago.com, contributes to Chicago Tribune.com, Bold, WGN CLTV and KOZN.
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