Jordan comparisons unfair to Rose

The Derrick Rose transformation is nearly complete.

In the span of a few months, Rose has gone from great player to superstar and now MVP.

It's been an amazing run and the credit goes to no one other than Rose, who decided last summer that being great wasn't nearly good enough.

Being the MVP was something only he could envision, a notion that drew chuckles in the preseason when Rose broached the subject and is now a reality — if not a formality.

Rose is the MVP, he's among the top five players in the NBA today, and there probably aren't but a few players in the country you'd rather have on your team.

But he's not Michael Jordan.

Let's say it again, this time slowly: He's not Michael Jordan.

It's a great tribute to Rose that Jordan's name now comes up in the same sentence every time someone wants to quantify just what Rose has become and where he might go.

And it's no slight on Rose, no knock on his extraordinary ability, to say he's not in Jordan's class.

That's because Jordan's is a class of one.

Not only are they different players with different styles and different games, not to mention from different eras with different defensive rules, but also in Jordan you're talking about the greatest player in the history of the game.

While estimable for Rose to be thrown into the conversation, it's really unfair to Rose.

In fact, none other than Phil Jackson said recently that even comparing Kobe Bryant to Jordan is an argument no one should bother making.

Jackson has seen all of the best players of the last 50 years. He has played with them and against them and has coached them and coached against them. And in the last decade Jackson repeatedly has said that Jordan is the best of all time.

“We have to take Michael Jordan out of the equation,” Jackson told the L.A. Times a few days ago. “Stop comparing anyone to Michael Jordan. It's just not fair.

“Kobe has patterned himself after Michael, and there are a lot of identical things there, but it's one thing to hope to be like him. It's another thing to be like him.

“It takes nothing away from (Bryant). He's a great player in his own right.”

It was wonderful to see Jordan back in Chicago on Saturday night celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Bulls' first title, hearing from the fans the love and adoration that has never left their hearts, not when he returned with Washington or when he has taken positions with other teams.

What Chicago remembers is the decade of the '90s when the Bulls gave us six titles and the most dramatic time in Chicago sports history, and what fans remembered Saturday is how much they wanted that first title for Jordan.

He had suffered the humiliation at the hands of the Pistons and to finally beat Detroit and then the Lakers to win it all was perfect.

The burden eternally lifted, Jordan cried, and Chicago wept with him.

That love for an athlete is rare, and perhaps only Walter Payton has known such a bond with this city. There are others, of course, but not in that stratosphere, and not having suffered for so long before finally climbing the championship mountain.

No, Michael Jordan can't be replaced and he can't be matched, but that doesn't mean Derrick Rose won't gain his own spot in the hearts of Bulls fans.

He is humble and hard working and dedicated to being the best, possessed by the need to win.

While different types of players, Rose is starting to display some of the characteristics that made Jordan the best ever, such as that desire to win and the need to take over a game and let everyone know he's the best.

It was no accident that he went off in front of Jordan on Saturday night. Not that Rose needs an excuse to play his best, but there's little doubt he was motivated by having Jordan there and so much energy in the building.

Rose will win titles here and he will be revered.

Maybe someday he will even hear the kind of noise Jordan heard when he stepped back on the court Saturday.

Jordan restored the roar and even steeled as he is Michael was taken aback by the emotion and floored once again by Chicago's embrace.

Frankly speaking, who wasn't?

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