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Rozner: Bulls, Rose reminder of failed promise

It was late on the night of Feb. 17, 2011, after Derrick Rose and the Bulls had taken apart the San Antonio Spurs at the UC, and a local scribe was tardy getting to Gregg Popovich.

Asked if he could answer just one more question about Rose, Popovich pleasantly obliged as he walked back toward his locker room.

"I've never seen a guy take this kind of leap in such a short amount of time," Popovich said. "He has jumped to the top of our game. It's really impressive."

Rose set a career high with 42 points that night, adding 8 assists and 5 rebounds, as the Bulls beat the Spurs 109-99.

"What's great about him is he seems to love the pressure," Popovich said. "That's what superstars do. They want to put the team on their back and they want the responsibility.

"Some guys are great when it's easy and then they kind of fade away into the background when the game gets tough."

The dominating, national TV performance against the four-time champs put Rose out front as the likely MVP, something Chicago fans clearly recognized as they chanted, "MVP, MVP, MVP."

"He's destined to be a superstar in this league," Popovich said. "You know, once you take that leap, you have to be that guy for 100 games a year, and he gets that.

"He knows that the responsibility is now his to carry his team. Once you do that, there's no turning back or you let a lot of people down."

That night comes to mind often, no day more so than Wednesday, when the Rose era came to an end in Chicago with a trade to New York after he let a lot of people down.

Rose did become the youngest MVP ever at 22 a few months after that game and the Bulls captured the top seed with 62 victories, reaching the conference finals and winning Game 1 before LeBron James and the Heat sent the Bulls packing for the summer.

And that would be the peak for both the Bulls and Rose.

A year later, after an injury-plagued season, Rose tore his ACL in Game 1 of the postseason and both Rose and the Bulls would never be the same.

Yes, he let a lot of people down, mostly because of injuries that never allowed him to be Derrick Rose again. But there was also the controversy of his delayed return from the ACL, and the often bizarre comments he would make in response to seemingly innocuous questions.

It was a precipitous fall for a truly great player, criticized daily in his hometown for being tone deaf and callous.

Some of it was fair and some of it wasn't, but it was all a direct result of an injury that was no fault of his own.

It just happened. Injuries happen. They are unpredictable and can be devastating.

This one halted a career before Rose could reach the heights Chicagoans dreamed of when Rose was the NBA's best player, when there appeared to be no ceiling, and when an NBA title felt like a possibility.

Unfortunately, Rose will be remembered in his hometown for failing to get back on the court when his teammates needed him and for the occasional odd statement that left his fans, teammates and organization wondering what he could possibly be thinking.

In reality, Rose was an extraordinary young player who burst on the scene and took the NBA by storm, only to suffer an injury from which he never really recovered.

We'll never know how good he could have been or what the Bulls might have been able to accomplish had Rose stayed healthy, though LeBron James' presence in the East probably mattered more than anything else.

Either way, on a day when James celebrated a title in his hometown, Rose departed his, leaving fans with empty hearts and the failed promise of what might have been.

And it makes 2011 feel like a very long time ago indeed.

brozner@dailyherald.com

• Listen to Barry Rozner from 9 a.m. to noon Sundays on the Score's "Hit and Run" show at WSCR 670-AM.

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