Merry Christmas Chicago Bulls and Derrick Rose fans! You’ll notice the United Center Christmas tree picture above. Rose and company face the Los Angeles Lakers on Christmas Day at the UC.
ESPN NBA analyst and Basketball Hall of Famer Hubie Brown discussed key NBA on Christmas Day storylines on a media conference call. I asked Brown:
Do you think Derrick Rose so far has looked like the Derrick Rose of old? How close do you think he is to being himself?
When Derrick Rose and company meet the Lakers in primetime, it won’t be much a test, or resistance. The Lake Show won last night, but they are still second to last in the Western Conference. The Bulls come in wedged in the middle of the Eastern Conference race, but just 2 1/2 games out of the #1 seed.
Continued Brown about Derrick Rose:
“Now I had him a week ago Friday where he had over 30 in that game with Portland and he looked absolutely sensational. Absolutely sensational. He did everything. He had assists. He broke the defenses down. He got to the basket, and especially in the last six minutes when it was mano a mano with Lillard, with both guys ending up over 30, but they matched one another for six minutes, you saw what we had seen previously when he was healthy. But since that time period we see now that there are games that he has missed.”
“So the only people who can really dictate to you are the doctors and the trainers. As far as Thibodeau, how Thibodeau is handling it, he’s handling it as best as he can possibly handle it and still say that we’re going to win games.”
Paul M. Banks owns, operates and writes The Sports Bank.net ,which is partners with Fox Sports. Read his feature stories in the Chicago Tribune RedEye edition. Listen to him on KOZN 1620 The Zone. Follow him on Twitter (@paulmbanks). His work has been featured in hundreds of media outlets including The Washington Post and ESPN 2