For Derrick Rose, it seems as if being honest isn't a virtue that he should honor. Next time he should just lie.
If I'm Derrick Rose right now, I'm looking at how Steve Nash's career is ending and what he has to go through to try to walk and have a normal post-NBA life. I'd look at how the game has taken a toll on another former MVP's body.
Nash posted this on Facebook: "I have a ton of miles on my back. Three bulging disks (a tear in one), stenosis of the nerve route and spondylolisthesis. I suffer from sciatica and after games I often can't sit in the car on the drive home, which has made for some interesting rides. Most nights I'm bothered by severe cramping in both calves while I sleep, a result of the same damn nerve routes, and the list goes on somewhat comically. That's what you deserve for playing over 1,300 NBA games. By no means do I tell you this for sympathy -- especially since I see these ailments as badges of honor -- but maybe I can bring some clarity."
He's 40; Rose is 27. It's funny how no one looking at Nash seems to think that other ballplayers won't see this and start to think about their own careers and mortality, especially someone like Rose who's been dealing with 11 different injuries in the past 30 months.
There are more: Kerry Wood. Mark Prior. Stephen Strasburg. Michael Redd. Greg Oden. Tracy McGrady. Gale Sayers. Ken Griffey Jr. (And I won't even bring someone like Grant Hill into the conversation.)
None of them had to endure over the course of their careers what Rose has had to in just the first six seasons of his. None reached his highs as soon, none fell his fall as fast. None was called stupid by the media, none incited this level of controversy.
And therein lies (pun strongly intended) the true problem with the media when we publicly belittle a guy for giving an honest answer but at the same time claim our biggest issue with athletes, coaches and team execs (we expect it from politicians, preachers and policemen) is when they don't give us honest answers.
Rose's apocalyptic "it's not about this year" comments that caused one Chicago columnist to say that "it's not just that [Rose's] statement is idiotic, it's that he apparently believes it. It's galling and stupid, and Rose doesn't seem smart enough to understand why."
But no. We want our athletes to think what we think and feel how we feel -- about them.
Derrick Rose was just being honest in how he's thinking and what's going through his mind trying to get back to 100 percent. When did honesty and big-picture thinking become an issue in anyone's career, especially after going through what Rose has gone through the past three years? So we can't be mad if after this he decides to never give an honest, forthright response to any question or any interview again. Why should he?
At some point the "punishment should equal the crime" rule has be called into play. The backlash toward Rose on this has been both berating and a bastardization of his character. Skip Bayless and Stephen A. Smith basically questioned his manhood, with Bayless saying "it's becoming clear that Derrick Rose is very, very gifted at something he really doesn't want to do: And that's play basketball at the highest level, the NBA level" on "First Take." Other local columnists such as Dan Bernstein questioned Rose's -- and a family member's -- educational pedigree and expressed concern that Rose is "missing the importance of the present." Charles Barkley called Rose's comments "flat-out stupid." Random people on the streets just going full-in on Rose.
All because we can't handle the truth when it's not what we want to hear.
When asked did he understand why he caught so much hell for his comments, Rose responded: "No. No. But I could care less." Followed by: "As far as everything that comes along with my story, missing two years, of course [controversy] is going to happen. I'm not worried about it as long as I'm being myself." And with trying to "be himself" comes honesty. The one thing we keep saying that we want from others. But obviously the one thing we can't take if it's not packaged like it came from Alexander McQueen.
Honesty is not always pretty; honestly is not always perfect. But honesty should, to some degree, when we request it, be respected.
Here's proof to how our hypocrisy reigns supreme and how we only want our truths digestible for infants who haven't grown teeth: A year and a half ago when Derrick Rose said he was still the best player in the NBA, the media and public had a very similar if not the exact same national response. We lost our collective minds, called him names, called him out of his mind, the same pattern that is being repeated now.
People had a hard time accepting his truth. But again, like now, the brotha was just being honest. And again, we couldn't deal with or respect it. It didn't fit "our" niche thinking of what someone is supposed to say. About themselves.
Which leaves open the question of who's the stupid, disappointing, selfish, uneducated and coddled one here: Derrick Rose or us?