It is the way of the world now — superstar NBA players recruit their teammates.
See Miami. See Chris Paul essentially play GM for the Clippers at points this summer. See the Celtics players courting guys to come in with them.
That is not his style, but Derrick Rose is going to have to become a recruiter to lift the Bulls up. And he started a little this summer by reaching out to Kirk Hinrich, reports Aggrey Sam at CSNChicago.com.Is Kirk the first person I recruited?” Derrick Rose wondered aloud. “Yeah, I think Kirk’s the first person I recruited….”
Said Hinrich: “We talked a couple times on the phone during free agency, just asking questions, talking a little bit and seeing how he was feeling.”
Well, that’s a start.
Rose may not be a classic recruiter — he didn’t reach out to LeBron James and Dwyane Wade a couple summers ago — but he is going to have to as the Bulls go forward. The front office is clearly making cap space room to go after a star or two in the next few summers and those guys are going to want to hear from Rose. Get a sense of him and what playing with him would be like.
It’s good he got some practice recruiting. Rose could always just call up John Calipari and get pointers. But he’s going to do some in the coming years, so he better get used to it.