Derrick Rose Ripped By Charles Barkley Over Injury Comments
Charles Barkley is not one to shy away from speaking his mind. So when Derrick Rose made questionable comments to reporters concerning his injury history, Sir Charles could not hold himself back, slamming Derrick on Thursday night’s Inside the NBA.
As reported by ESPN, Rose told reporters earlier in the week that he values his long term health over the current NBA season, comments that could have been harmless if Rose worded his thoughts differently:
“I’m thinking about long term. I’m thinking about after I’m done with basketball. Having graduations to go to, having meetings to go to, I don’t want to be in my meetings all sore or be at my son’s graduation all sore just because of something I did in the past. [I’m] just learning and being smart.”
It was the graduation comments especially that burned Barkley enough to dig his claws deep into the Chicago Bulls All-Star guard. “That was stupid,” Charles told his co-hosts on TNT on Thursday. “Derrick Rose is a great player, he’s a great kid. Love his mom. That was stupid. You know, Ernie, we’re so blessed. I limp around but I go home to a big ol’ mansion. There’s people who work harder than Derrick Rose who go home to a shack.”
Barkley continued his tirade:
“There are consequences to what we do for a living. We got the best life in the world. I’m a poor black kid from Leeds, Alabama who grew up in the projects and listen, I don’t mind limping around because when I go home, there’s a big ol’ house. I got good sheets — I don’t know the thread count, but they’re good. I got a big ol’ car. I never have to worry about my bills. There are pros and cons to what we do for a living. Derrick Rose is making $20 million a year. He got a couple bad knees. That’s disrespectful to maids, people who are in the army who go out and kill people and get killed. They got no arms and no legs. As much as I like Derrick Rose, that is just flat-out stupid.”
The USA Today backed up Barkley’s comments in a recent article saying that while Rose’s goals are “noble, reasonable goals” they don’t “jibe with Rose’s other goal of being a great basketball player who leads his team to a championship.”
As reported by Inquistr, the criticism for Rose sprang up following yet another injury for the Bulls guard. He has yet to play a full 82-game season in his career.
