Culture of Hoops

Dwyane Wade to Derrick Rose: Be the same

Dwyane Wade was in his hometown of Chicago promoting his book, A Father First: How My Life Became Bigger Than Basketball, sitting down for an interview in front of several hundred people at the Union League Club. Among the topics Wade talked about, other than his book, is the acquisition of Dwight Howard and Steve Nash by the Los Angeles Lakers and the expectations to win a championship. Wade definitely knows about that, particularly when he, LeBron James, and Chris Bosh joined forces during the 2010 offseason and finally winning the title last season.

However, the Miami Heat superstar has basically been talking about that at every stop of the book tour, so it must have been refreshing to speak about another Windy City native son, the Chicago Bulls’ Derrick Rose. Rose, rehabbing from a knee injury, received some unsolicited advice from Wade:

“He doesn’t talk much, so I don’t know much,” Wade said. “But you have to work even harder once you have an injury. He has to rebuild himself, and I think Derrick is a very hard worker. You have to have trust, you have to have faith, you have to have belief.

“One thing when he comes back to playing basketball, you can’t question yourself. When he steps back on the court, he has to be the same Derrick Rose. There are going to be people who are going to tell him: ‘Oh, you’re going to need to change the way you play.’ But that’s the reason everyone fell in love with Derrick Rose as a player, because of the way he played. So don’t change the way you play. Just have the confidence and trust and belief in your rehab process and the doctor who did the surgery and you will be fine.”

It’s a nice show of respect by Wade for a fellow competitor. Hopefully, they can exchange pleasantries soon on an NBA court… then try to beat each other for the W. You can’t expect anything less from these two NBA ballers.

You can contact and find me on Twitter @BallerMindFrame or e-mail me at [email protected].



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