Derrick Rose, with the help of renowned Chicago Bulls writer Sam Smith, wrote an autobiography entitled “I'll Show You,” detailing the story of his life and what he has gone through in his NBA career. The New York Post shared bits and pieces of the book, which will drop next week.
In the book, Rose talked about his lone season with the New York Knicks and had some words to say about then-president Phil Jackson:
As for me, I liked Phil, but, come on, man, you’re still running the triangle? He was still forcing them to run it. I’m a slasher, a driving point guard. The triangle is okay, but not for the personnel we had. Melo couldn’t play that way, didn’t want to.
Early on in the season, Phil really didn’t force anything. But as time went on, it converted all the way to the triangle and we played through that almost the whole year. For the team we had, I think deep down [coach Jeff] Hornacek really wanted to play that more up-tempo style. But being in that position, being a new head coach, having to listen to the front office, it’s hard on that coach to say something. He’s moved around, he’d been fired in Phoenix. I guess Hornacek got tired of hearing about it, having meetings about it, so he just said, “We’re gonna do it and see.”
It's clear Rose didn't like the way Jackson forced his outdated triangle system on the Knicks, especially with the way their roster was constructed. Rose also shared that Jackson got mad at the team one time — in a winning effort no less — for not running the triangle offense.
In addition to the six-time NBA champion coach, Rose also called out current Knicks president Steve Mills, who replaced Jackson in the summer of 2017:
New York could have done the same thing. I would have done that. Me stepping away from the team that day had nothing to do with them; I was good with New York. But they didn’t sign me, didn’t even talk to me. No communication. I thought, “I just gave y’all 18 a game. At the point guard position. And you go draft a point guard?”
Steve Mills is talking all this black dude stuff with me, like we’re brothers and all this. He’s saying that s–t, making me think it’s going to make us closer. Come on, be yourself.
I loved New York. We were losing but I felt I was playing great. I felt like they still could have built something — or attempted to. They got rid of me but I definitely wanted to stay there.
Obviously, Rose didn't like the way Mills handled his business. It appears like he was led to believe the Knicks still wanted him to stay. However, Mills apparently had other plans.
Rose claims he still actually enjoyed his time in New York despite the issues. He had a pretty good run statistically in his lone season there. He put up 18.0 points per game and shot an efficient 47.1 percent clip from the field.
However, it was clear at that point that the Knicks just wanted to tear everything down at the point Mills took over. Mills traded franchise star Carmelo Anthony that very same summer. Bringing back a battered Derrick Rose would have made zero sense.
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