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By Sam Smith | 4.24.2015 | 11:00 p.m. CT

Life at one time probably did seem like a big Skittles machine to Derrick Rose, figuratively and literally, simple, colorful, sugary, all his and going down with a smile.

But tastes and appetites change with growth, responsibility and the inevitable hardship. Sweets can turn bitter. Derrick Rose has grown, thicker across the shoulders and deeper in responsibility, a veteran NBA player now concluding his seventh year, caring for a child and a career. The game no longer is a piece of candy; life and the game have become a full meal.

“That player you saw, that reckless player, I’m smarter now,” Rose was telling reporters Friday afternoon following a brief team film session. “If I didn’t grow in this game I’d be mad at myself. Just trying to take the shots they are giving me, trying to adjust while I am playing. That old/young reckless player you saw years ago, he’s not there anymore.

“I love this player,” Rose said with an authoritative look. “This player is better, smarter.”

Probably the notion about “reinventing yourself” is a bit too cliché for what Rose has gone through, an evolutionary process exacerbated by natural growth and physical misfortune. That Rose is averaging 24 points and eight assists on 45.5 percent three point shooting is not the salient point in the Bulls 3-0 playoff series lead over the Milwaukee Bucks.

It’s that he’s come back not to be back as he was, as often has become the public and media obsession like a boom or bust economic cycle; a skyrocketing stock or a crash, little in between. But for Rose it’s been to advance in mind and spirit as well as game. Perhaps you don’t get statistically better, but you begin to learn what it takes to earn your way back and be a pro.

“The joy, the appreciation, just everything about basketball,” Rose explained. “For someone like myself to go through three surgeries at a young age, your whole perspective of the game and life is different. Especially having a son, your appreciation of the game, your appreciation of the fans, just seeing everybody jump off the wagon, get back on the wagon; it’s fun. It’s part of it. You can’t get mad at people. You can’t get mad at the fans.

“People are always going to have opinions,” said Rose. “It’s just funny to hear their opinions and get motivated by them. Appreciating every moment of it; even the down times where it’s all a learning experience. That’s another reason why you have to love the playoffs because it’s going to be tough. It’s going to push you in every way, mentally, physically, emotionally; you’ve just got to figure your way through it.”

It’s why perhaps so many underestimate Rose and what he’s endured and perhaps this Bulls team as well.

The Bulls go for the four-game sweep 4:30 Saturday in Milwaukee, which would likely lead to a conference semifinals series starting in Cleveland next weekend. No one among the Bulls is looking ahead. It seems likely Nikola Mirotic will be out again Saturday, though Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau said his knee and quadriceps is improving. Mirotic was working out, but not yet running. Otherwise, the team seemed prepared after Thursday’s wild 113-106 double overtime win in which Rose and Butler combined for 58 points and more than 100 minutes between them. Both pronounced themselves fit after basically a day off while they are combining to average more than 50 points per game in the series.

The Bucks have been physical, active, resolute and passionate, though without enough shot making. So the Bulls have survived and endured as they squint toward the future and a potential basketball gift of a series with the Cavaliers. But there is business to complete, and no one among the Bulls after three grueling games believes the Bucks should be taken lightly.

“We are going to push ourselves to go out there and try to win,” said Rose. “We know they are going to give us their best punch early in the game. We’ve just got to withstand that.”

No one has taken punches to their career and life like Rose has the last few years with the multiple surgeries, the slings and arrows or outrageous expectations and demands.

Rose has endured it with grace and character, which is not only reflected in his welcoming attitude toward critics, but his commitment to be a top player and team leader once again, even more than before in some ways.

That Rose is not outwardly effusive and revealing has led some to believe he didn’t care enough; it’s been the opposite, not that reckless opinion is a rarity. Because Rose already was rich and famous he didn’t have to work like he did. That he did so in isolation to the extreme while changing everything in his life in a quest to return for himself and his teammates demonstrates a greater quality of character.

Rose laughs now at what he has become, the “old man” he never imagined. None of us do when we are kids and everything comes so easily, as it did to Rose on the basketball court for more than anyone. The speaker comes to your class or your parent warns you about poison ivy, but who doesn’t day dream and still walk in the woods of insouciance?

But here is Rose now, like the wizened veterans, both wise beyond his years and seeing the kids and shaking his head. They’ll learn like he did.

“I think we have something special,” Rose said about the Bulls. “Everybody is taking care of their body off the court recovery wise, everybody working out and trying to push one another. When you have that on a team, especially a professional team, it’s something special. When you go in the gym and see the rookies working out, the veterans working out, everyone doing what they are supposed to it does nothing but push you as a player.

“I had a vision in my mind,” Rose said about this season. “The one thing I could take from it was my preparation. Like going into these games, what I do now, how many hours I put in just recovery wise for my body and what I do for my body so I’m able to produce in those games. It’s mind blowing some of the things I do I never thought I’d be doing, but I see them as helping. The things I am doing now is what (Mike) Dunleavy would, Nazr (Mohammed) would, people who played numerous amount of years in the NBA that really take care of their body, as far as hydration, what you eat, your diet, exercising and making sure you work out.”

It’s about being a professional; because it is a profession and not a game. It’s about working harder than the next person, and Rose has done that. You don’t return like he is after where he’s been without enduring and experiencing that. So what if no one knew or appreciated; it’s about the action. Not the reaction.

“Taking care of your body; nothing crazy like some of the rumors you hear about like getting in wine or anything,” Rose said with a smile in reference to the Amar’e Stoudemire regimen. “Nothing like that. Just making sure, eating well, sleeping, little things, stretching.”

They are little things, but they are big things because they speak to maturity, commitment and responsibility. That’s what’s enabled Rose to return as a game changing player while the Bulls hope to change what’s been their destiny without Rose.

“Derrick, it’s not that he’s old; his best years are coming,” maintains Thibodeau. “He’s had to navigate through adversity; it’s made him a lot stronger mentally. Now we have a chance. The challenge is not only bringing the best out of himself, but to bring the best out of all his teammates. He’s probably doing that as well as he ever has. He had several plays he had dribble penetration into the lane, the kick out to Mike or Tony (Snell) or Jimmy that led to high percentage shots, great chemistry with Pau (Gasol) on the pick and roll. He’s a little more patient, but he’s also bringing the best out of his teammates.”

Rose knows it’s not about being the MVP; it’s about being the most valuable he can be to his team and himself.