This copy is for personal, non-commercial use. To order presentation-ready copies for distribution you can: 1) Use the "Reprint" button found on the top and bottom of every article, 2) Visit reprints.theygsgroup.com/dailyherald.asp for samples and additional information or 3) Order a reprint of this article now.
Bulls’ Rose right for answering Dwight
Derrick Rose doesn’t make many missteps on or off the court.
And the opinion here is that he didn’t make one in answering a question about Dwight Howard being interested in the Bulls.
“Dwight, he’s a great player,”’ Rose said. “Who wouldn’t want to play with him? But you never know what’s going to happen.”
It seems unlikely that the Bulls can make this happen, especially since John Paxson has a habit of falling in love with and hanging onto his own players too long.
But this will nevertheless be a test of Rose’s Teflon personality, because some of his teammates ought to interpret his answer as meaning he’d rather have Howard than some of them.
Of course, Rose is right and that’s really too bad for them.
Still, if they weren’t afraid of the media response to criticizing Rose, some of the Bulls’ big men might react to such a comment.
At the same time, if LeBron James or Dwyane Wade made such a remark about playing with Howard, they would get absolutely blasted from coast to coast, and Canada to Mexico, for being selfish and disrespecting their teammates.
But Rose seems bulletproof to any sort of criticism, with a different set of rules as the national media applies them.
So there probably won’t be much blowback at all.
Bearing down
There was some shameful cheerleading for Jerry Angelo when he got the job, and Monday brought the same response to Phil Emery in some corners.
For those who still miss Angelo, consider that the Patriots took 18 undrafted free agents to the Super Bowl, while the Giants feature undrafted free-agent wide receiver Victor Cruz, who wasn’t even invited to the Combine out of Massachusetts.
“Being from a small school, I understand it,” Cruz said in Indianapolis. “I wasn’t 6-foot-5, 220 pounds, or I didn’t have off-the-wall statistics, so I understood how that whole thing goes.
“But I’d rather be here for the Super Bowl now than the Combine.”
Time will tell if Emery is any better than Angelo at unearthing such gems.
The good cause
The Wolves are accepting Tim Breslin Memorial Scholarship applications until March 1, with the grant winner getting a semester of college. Visit chicagowolves.com and click on community for more information.
The chanciest
Paul Konerko had one of the more interesting comments of SoxFest when he said that more teams have a shot at the postseason than you think in 2012, and then seemed to contradict himself.
“It’s more wide open than maybe we think. There’s only about five teams that are really almost certain to go to the playoffs,” Konerko said. “There’s the Red Sox, Yankees and probably Texas and the Angels.”
He left out Detroit but with five teams in the American League making the playoffs — assuming that fifth team is approved this week — that doesn’t leave a whole lot of room for any other American League team.
The antagonist
New White Sox bench coach Mark Parent says one of the issues he wants to work on right away is defending the running game.
“That was a big problem and we’ve got to be better at that, and the pitching staff is a big part of that,” Parent said. “When you don’t do the little things with the running game, it really hurts the team.
“We’re going to give A.J. (Pierzynski) more responsibility as far as running the game out there and I think that will help a lot.”
The pragmatist
White Sox GM Ken Williams: “The Tigers are clearly the team to beat in our division. We’ve been clearly the team to beat in our division a number of times, too. It didn’t exactly work out well for us. Let’s hope it doesn’t work out well for them.”
The optimist
Adam Dunn on 2012: “We made two pretty good moves this off-season. That was hopefully getting me and Alex (Rios) back. That’s the way I’m looking at it.”
The pacifist
Jake Peavy: “I wish Ozzie (Guillen) nothing but the best, and he was a great manager here, but I think we’re all looking forward to a little more low-key atmosphere this year.”
And finally ...
Omaha World-Herald’s Brad Dickson: “Rapper 50 Cent bet $500,000 on the Giants to beat the 49ers. I’d be tempted to say 50 Cent has terrific luck, except for the fact he’s been shot something like 37 times.”
brozner@dailyherald.com
Ÿ Hear Barry Rozner on WSCR 670-AM and follow him @BarryRozner on Twitter.
Copyright © 2013 Paddock Publications, Inc. All rights reserved.