Rozner: Can Derrick Rose do anything right in fans' eyes?

Just when you think the Derrick Rose saga can't get any more bizarre, it takes a true turn for the surreal.

The hatred for Rose locally had already gone beyond anything rational, and that was before he made a statement Saturday night with a T-shirt that read, "I can't breathe."

Rose was standing up for social change, using his platform to recognize the death of a black man, Eric Garner, and the decision of a Staten Island grand jury that no charges would be filed against a white New York City police officer.

Since Saturday night, Rose has been described - among other ways - as uneducated, too ignorant to understand the significance, too wealthy to truly care and merely trying to rehabilitate his image while capitalizing on a tragedy.

Social media and email is filled with anger and skepticism, and the critics, after all, know precisely what's in Rose's heart, right?

Rose cares nothing about the current discussion taking place in most American homes, write some of his most virulent assailants, which seems unlikely considering his upbringing in Englewood, a neighborhood that boasts one of the worst combinations of crime and poverty in the United States.

Even if true, even if he doesn't care, even if he was encouraged by others to make a statement, so what? The result is people are talking about it, which is only a positive.

But to think Rose doesn't know or doesn't care is the continued fostering of a narrative that on the surface - at least - appears racist. He is called dumb. He is called uneducated. He is called vapid.

And a young black man from a poor, black neighborhood can't understand the plight of a black man in a white world? Where do you even begin to find the logic in that?

On Monday, Rose said that he had the shirt made because, "I wanted to support something that happened."

Admitting that he might not have done something like this before he became a dad, Rose said, "I'm not saying all cops are bad or anything. I'm just saying what happened … is uncalled for, and I don't want my son growing up being scared of the police, or even having that thought on his mind that something like that could happen."

Sounds like a thoughtful and reasoned perspective, something that quickly garnered the support of his teammates.

"He has every right to express his beliefs," said Joakim Noah. "I respect Derrick 150 percent. He's definitely making a statement. And that's my guy."

Does that make Noah stupid and uneducated? You're not likely to read that anywhere.

"I think a lot of people feel that way," Noah said of Rose's statement. "It's really sad what happened. Police brutality is something that happens. Not every cop is a bad person. Not every black person is a bad person. You can't judge people.

"But Derrick definitely made a statement by wearing that T-shirt."

Maybe Noah is just too insipid to truly understand, though Taj Gibson agreed with Rose and Noah.

"I thought it was a great message," said Gibson, who's originally from Brooklyn. "It was him speaking his mind, speaking out. It's a good thing for a positive movement."

People act as though Rose burned down a building, when what he did in reality was use a form of protest that was cheered by LeBron James and would probably meet the approval of activists like Jim Brown, Bill Russell, Arthur Ashe and Jackie Robinson.

Look, Rose is no Muhammad Ali, but he's also not Tiger Woods or Michael Jordan, who were coached to protect the brand above the cause, which is also their right.

The criticism of Woods and Jordan has always been unfair. There's no rule that suggests an athlete must have a social conscience. This is America. Those men have the freedom to say nothing, just as Rose has the freedom to wonder aloud about the state of race relations.

Don't like the mix of sports and social change? Wake up. It's 2014, not 1964. Change the channel and wait for the news to cycle.

But there's more to this Rose story than meets the eye. We have reached a point in his hometown among his own fans where he can do no right, on the court or off.

If he doesn't say anything, he's an ignorant fool. If he speaks a simple message with a shirt, he's opportunistic.

Derrick Rose can't win. Not in Chicago, anyway.

brozner@dailyherald.com

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