LAS VEGAS — Derrick Rose is not the guy who is going to call up a free agent every day and recruit him. He has the back of the guys in his locker room — he wants someone to choose to join them, to choose to come into that locker room, not to have to be dragged.
But that doesn’t mean Rose didn’t want Carmelo Anthony to come to Chicago.
In Las Vegas with Team USA, Rose talked about his message to Anthony when the two spoke.
“That if he was to come, that the game would be easy,’’ Rose said. “I don’t know how easy but of course it would be easy. And that we wanted him. Just plain and simple, we wanted him to come. He decided to go somewhere else. But it’s no hard feelings. I can’t get mad at the decision he made. He’s a grown man.’’
Rose said he was disappointed that Anthony chose to stay in New York, but he also understood — this isn’t just about what happens on the court.
“If you put yourself in that decision, that’s a hard decision,” Rose said. “You got your family to think about. You got money to think about. Not to say you should think about money. But when you’re talking about millions and millions of dollars, you can’t just put that behind you. So I’m not mad with the decision that he made and I wish him nothing but the best.’’
Chicago did okay for itself this summer, adding Pau Gasol to the front line. If Rose is back to himself — and he looked good, with a more mature game, at least at the first day of Team USA training camp — then the Bulls can compete with anyone in the East. They have their identity and know how to play their system, there is no big learning curve.
But Carmelo Anthony would have brought another dimension to that system on offense.
