by Adam Figman | @afigman
Derrick Rose takes a beating. Anyone with his skills would, what with the flying around guards and big men en route to acrobatic, body-bending finishes around the rim, all while those same guards and big men do their best to slow the reigning MVP down anyway they can—even if it means hitting him with a flailing elbow or shoving him mid-flight. And, frankly, Rose is sick of it. So sick, in fact, that he took to the media about the beating he ensues nightly after the Bulls 100-94 win against the Detroit Pistons Sunday night.
Via the Chicago Tribune:
One call Rose did get came with 4:31 left in regulation. [Charlie]Villanueva whacked Rose as he drove on a fast break, getting some ball, arms and cutting Rose’s face. Villanueva compounded his mistake with a technical foul for a four-point Bulls possession.
He and Rose exchanged words as he left to get his cut addressed.
“I’m sick and tired of people trying to take cheap shots at me,” Rose said. “I was mad, man. I’m a man, so situations like that, you have to say something. He hit me in the face and didn’t even aim for the ball.”
Rose can lobby for calls as much as he’d like—and he may have a great point, because he has been getting beat up around the hoop—but as long as he’s dominating offensively, he can expect those annoyingly dangerous cheap shots from frustrated defenders to keep coming. Here’s hoping the hit that injures him (any further than he’s already been injured) doesn’t come anytime soon, if at all.
