It's not very often young players earn the praise of Kobe Bryant, which is why many in the pro basketball community seemed to notice last month when Bryant sought out Derrick Rose for a hug and some kinds words after the Bulls' 98-91 loss in Los Angeles.
"I can tell when a player truly wants to be better and does what it takes to improve," Bryant said Thursday, one night before the rematch in Chicago. "It was a quality I had when I was growing up. … I admire that about him. I could really see it from last year to this year."
Kobe is now one of the elder statesman in the league, at 32 years old and in his 15th season, his blessing now means every bit as much as Michael Jordan's did in the late 1990s, when Bryant was a young pup. And Rose has caught his eye. We've seen enough to know now, six weeks into the season, that D-Rose wasn't being presumptuous when he essentially asked in the preseason, "Why not me?" for MVP.
"He's got a long-range ball now," Bryant said. "He can pop behind the pick and shoot the jumper. He can pull up off the dribble and shoot it, and him getting to the rim goes unquestioned. He's putting the time in the gym, and I certainly respect that."
The best sign yet of how desperately Rose wants to win came after the Bulls' narrow victory over Cleveland on Wednesday, a game that could have gone either way, the kind of game the Bulls shouldn't be nearly squandering if they have serious aspirations about contending. Rose knows winning alone isn't enough. It is if you merely want to make the playoffs, but not for teams such as the Celtics and Magic, Spurs and Lakers, for whom that's the minimum required. Rose was too annoyed to eat the postgame spread, not easily satisfied -- in the tradition of Bryant and Jordan. Rose isn't blessed with their height, but increasingly he seems to have their hatred of losing. Friday's game with the Lakers is one of those chances to see to what lengths Rose will go to not lose because Kobe is wary of all comers now.
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Before Friday night's game, before he led the Bulls to their first win over the Los Angeles Lakers in four years, before he wowed a national crowd with 29 and 9, Derrick Rose told reporters with a straight face that he's not a star.
"He did?" Joakim Noah said. "When he plays on the court, you really believe he thinks that?"
No, of course not.
"Exactly," Noah said. "He might tell you guys that, but when he's dribbling that ball up the court, he knows what he's doing."
He knows what he's doing, all right. What he did Friday night was score 29 points, knock down three of five 3-pointers, dish out nine assists and, by force of will, lead the Bulls to their most impressive win of this young season, a wildly entertaining 88-84 victory over the defending champion Lakers.
"His swag is crazy right now," Noah said. "That's good. That's a good thing. We need that."
This wasn't just an early December win. The Bulls hadn't beaten Los Angeles since Dec. 19, 2006, and coming off disappointing losses to Orlando and Boston last week, this team needed to make a statement that it was really a player in the big picture.
Do the players feel the same way about one win?
"Of course," Rose said. "When you beat the champions, there's nothing you can say about that. We won this game fair and square."
Rose's pure desire, clichéd as it sounds, separates him from the pretenders and the second-tier players. And it's why he is a star.
"Derrick is somebody who wants to be great," Noah said. "I've never been around somebody who's so hard on himself. He really wants to be the best player he can be. He's special because, you know, he has a lot of abilities, but his mindset is what makes him so unique. I've never seen somebody with that much ability be so humble off the court, but on the court, his swag is unbelievable."
"What he's doing right now is unbelievable," Noah said.
In a game that defined the rising arc of his young career, Rose's most memorable move came with 5 minutes, 31 seconds to go and the Bulls up 74-67.
It was an accidental homage to the ghost he'll chase until the end of his career.
The move came on a catch-and-shoot play out of a timeout with 3 seconds on the shot clock. Rose caught the pass, faded back, off balance, into the Lakers bench. He uncorked his body and buried a 21-foot jumper.
Oh, and Rose hit another shot clock beater, a 15-foot fadeaway, with 25.2 seconds left to keep a dwindling lead at 85-80. He scored nine points in the fourth.
"I don't mean to bring my agent B.J. Armstrong in it, but he said that's when good players are supposed to take over a game," Rose said. "And that's all I was trying to do. And the shots, thank God, went in."
The fans were up for this one, with chants of "Beat L.A." and cheers of "MVP" for Rose.
Rose said the MVP chants feel good, but he's not going to let it go to his head.
"I'm not a star," Rose said before the game. "I'm just playing in the NBA, and trying to do anything to get my team a win, just passing the ball, doing whatever. But you can see the difference between a star and a superstar, especially in this league where superstars like Kobe and other players -- there's only a few of them -- they can take over games and do it on a consistent basis."
Like Noah said, he's always hard on himself.
