Bulls Mon Jan 30 2012

That is a point guard, friends. That is your point guard, that is my point guard and we can all sing Guthrie's "This Land Is Your Land" around a campfire that's fueled by Derrick Rose's passion. Those tears? You dare mock them? Go watch "Entourage," drink some Michelob Ultra and mock your significant other for being a few pounds too heavy, brah. Derrick Rose's reaction to that one loss? That speaks volumes to what victory and pride mean for Englewood's man. Since he entered the league Rose has always been the measured one, "the nice guy you're really pulling for." Now in a scant two-and-a-half weeks, we have Squire Rose goofin' on his new shoes, calling out the Pacers and shouldering his universe and gritting his teeth after a loss to the team everyone wants to know if he'll be able to beat.

You don't want Rose calling out the Pacers for celebrating too much for one victory at the United Center in January? Stop it. The next time those squads play, Rose is dropping a 60-point deluge of Skittles and Hello Kitty dolls and Assassin's Creed on the Hoosiers: Pro.

As for the Miami game? I'm not sure how you spell "Chicago's Folk Hero" but it starts with "D" and ends in "errick Rose" for me. So, yeah, "F*ck it," he talks real and sheds some tears. Let Thibs be the cracked-out, truth-defying Nic Cage in Bad Lieutenant: Port Of Call: New Orleans and let Derrick show some iota of humanity. You know how many tears LeBron drops and we all know how many rings the King has. Kobe? Please, he's a robot and he only cries Windex and that's only to make himself fresh and clean again. MJ? Well, that's stratified air, and, lest we forget:



(And don't you dare make a joke about gambling debts.)

This is what we want from Rose. He's back on his the next day, but for those vulnerable moments? Let him be the human, the conquering, do-it-all hero, who, because no one else will, explains to the world that the loss was his fault. More so? This emotion, this rawness is what the Bulls have been lacking. For all of the defensive "ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO US," for the cohesion of a team-first attack on both sides of the ball, there's been a certain degree of bite missing. When Noah and Wade were called for double T's in the fourth yesterday, tell me you weren't excited to see Joakim showing a little extra bite. To flash the fangs at the alpha dog? YES. This is what the Bulls are showing and I'll take it every day.

Mythos is all too easy and readily available to a player such as Rose. "Him blossoming into the preternatural killer." "The gentle murderer who slides so many daggers in so many teams ribcages." Let him show his teeth, let him show his weakness and let his own psychological redemption bear its own fruit and, most importantly, let him write his own myth in June.