Derrick Rose discusses losing his rotation spot, plans for life after retirement

The New York Knicks visited Chicago on Wednesday to meet the Bulls for the first time on Wednesday, defeating the home team 128-120 in OT. Both teams will face each other again on Friday to complete their mini-series of games for the week, with another meeting scheduled for Dec. 23 at MSG right before the Christmas festivities!

Derrick Rose, who returned home to Chicago for the first time this season (not quite) donning Knicks threads, didn’t log a minute for the fifth consecutive time with head coach Tom Thibodeau having changed the rotation of late, handing younger guard Miles McBride the minutes once used by Rose.

Asked about his 11-day, five-game DNP run, Rose said that the Knicks, “Got Deuce playing ahead of me” and that he, “...can’t hate on that young man.”

Rose reminded the media: “I had [Deuce] over for Thanksgiving last year. Real cool with his family members. I love the way he’s playing. I would feel a way if I was hating in any type of fashion. So I’m happy for him.”

Rose also said that he’s not giving attention to rumors about a potential trade right now, reasoning: “If we were losing, probably (he would pay attention to rumors). But I like winning. I’m a winner. I like being around a locker room where the vibrations are just winning.”

“I never want to be in a slump. Or get down just because I’m not playing.”

Talking about his eventual retirement from basketball—Rose turned 34 last October; he is into his 14th NBA season having missed one more entirely while recovering from an ACL injury in 2013—the Chicago, Illinois native said that he “feels good” and that he wants to “be able to walk away whenever I want to walk away and smile while I’m doing it.”

According to the New York Post, Rose has already plotted some post-retirement plans including “starting a chess league, building a library, and going into farming.”

“Right now, it’s like, who knows? As long as I can move around, that’s all people want to see. See how many games I play. It’s not about stats anymore. They just want to see how many games I play.”

Rose has played 21 games for the Knicks this season after appearing in 26 last year and in 35 two years ago after getting acquired by New York via trade with Detroit.

Although Rose has missed a lot of games since he suffered multiple injuries early in his career, his odometer is already at 693 games played over 14 professional seasons of play. He’s logged 21,602 minutes through those matchups.

Since he debuted in the 2008-09 season and accounting for both regular-season and playoff games, Rose has played the 63rd-most minutes (23,571) in the NBA. Looking at that 63-man list from a per-game angle, though, Rose boasts the 32nd-highest minutes-per-game average at 31.7 over 744 games.

The veteran point guard has found his name in the rumor mill for a few weeks now and with Thursday marking the “unofficially official” opening of the trade market, the whispers will only ramp up from Dec. 15 on.