If you were an 80s baby, your teenage years were flush with great movies such as There’s Something About Mary, Ace Ventura: Pet Detective and The Cable Guy. Remember the stars of those films, Cameron Diaz and Jim Carrey? Sure we do. They were great! Diaz commanded the screen as a sexy, but funny “everyday” kinda gal. Carrey contorted his face and gave us belly laughs from role to role. They even starred in The Mask TOGETHER, which was Diaz’s film debut. Carrey had a pretty good run in the 90s. In addition to the aforementioned films, Dumb & Dumber and the Truman Show were also instant comedy classics. He even ventured into the “serious” with a breakout performance in Man on the Moon (which was the Andy Kaufman bio-pic). Diaz had a less-than-illustrious early career as far as critical acclaim was concerned, but she was still immensely popular and became one of the highest-paid actresses in Hollywood.
Then came the year 2000. To me, that year was the end of an era for both of these icons.
Carrey starred in Me, Myself & Irene, a hilarious comedy in which he played dual roles as a schizophrenic Rhode Island State Policeman. Diaz starred alongside Drew Barrymore and Lucy Liu in Charlie’s Angels, a fast-paced, action-packed re-envisioning of the hit TV show. Great stuff, right? Yup. But that was the last time we would see these Hollywood juggernauts at their best.
Carrey had a couple worthwhile movies in the 2000s (Bruce Almighty in 2003, and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind in 2004) and Diaz co-starred with scene-stealer Daniel Day-Lewis in Gangs of New York (2002), but the two mostly served up unwatchable dreck, pandering to the audience in stuff like Fun with Dick and Jane, Yes Man, The Box, and Bad Teacher.
Of course, this hasn’t stopped them from continuing to make movie after movie after movie — whether we want them to or not. The stars that were captured on screen (and in our hearts) during our childhoods will never be the same.
…just like Chicago Bulls’ point guard Derrick Rose.
Rose came onto the NBA scene during the 2008-09 season. The former Memphis Tiger scored 16.8 points while dishing out 6.3 assists, and handily won Rookie of the Year honors, receiving 111 of a possible 120 first-place votes.
He followed up that rookie campaign with an even more impressive sophomore season and then topped it all of with an NBA MVP Award in 2010-11.
Like the early-decade versions of Carrey and Diaz, that was the last time we would see Derrick Rose as the Derrick Rose we all had grown accustomed to.
Rose had an injury-plagued 2011-12 season, but the ultimate blow came during the Bulls’ first round matchup with the Philadelphia 76ers. In Game 1, the reigning MVP tore the ACL in his left knee.
We wouldn’t see him back on a basketball court until the beginning of the 2013-14 season.
Of course, this wasn’t without controversy. Much like Carrey’s oft-publicized romance with former Playmate and TV show host Jenny McCarthy (who was also the subject of many of my “private” memories in the 90s), Rose was in the news for all the wrong reasons. Rants from guys like Stephen A. Smith and internet memes from Twitter trolls were thrown upon the Bulls’ All-Star. Fans weren’t happy either. After all, ACL tears usually take 8-to-12 months to recover from, so why did Rose sit out the entire 2012-13 season? He was practicing with the team, so shouldn’t he have been able to play in actual games? And why didn’t he come back for the playoffs? The Bulls clearly could have used him in their pivotal Eastern Conference Semifinals matchup with the eventual champion Miami Heat.
The easy answer to those questions is that his knee was just not better. Doctors cleared him, but only the individual himself can truly know how he feels in the recovery process.
Once this past season was underway, excitement filled the air as Rose was finally back on the United Center court. It was to be short-lived situation, though.
Just 10 games in, Rose again suffered a season-ending injury. This time, tearing the meniscus in his right knee. All the smack talk and name calling that occurred a couple years before? Well, that started up again.
Rose now deems himself completely healthy, going so far as to say that he is “a special player” once again. While I will never doubt Rose’s talent as a basketball player, as a fantasy owner, I’m staying away from this guy like he’s Joran van der Sloot and I’m a young, nubile — yet naive — girl on the beaches of Aruba. Don’t be that owner who thinks it’s “cool” to have Rose on your team.
While ADPs are a little hard to come by this time of year, I’ve participated in some mock drafts with some top writers in the industry and I’ve also peeped some results from others that I did not partake in. The general consensus seems to be that D-Rose is going in the late second- to early-third round of drafts. That’s too high for my liking, and thus, I will not be drafting him on any of my teams. Rose has obviously fallen under the dreaded “injury prone” label, and rightly so. It’s not a bunch of fluke injuries though. Some will point to this past season, saying he hurt his right knee — not the one where he had torn the ACL — and use that to mask the fact that these two injuries are indeed related. Whether he was favoring the right side or he was just playing “too scared”, it’s a medical fact that a knee surgery will weaken your lower extremities, and will likely do so for the rest of your life. Rose is not Superman. He’s not even Adrian Peterson — nor are 99.99% of the other professional athletes who have undergone the same surgery.
I hope Rose once again returns to greatness. He deserves it. But I’m okay with that happening on someone else’s watch. Instead of taking Rose in the third round, I’ll grab Marc Gasol, Chris Bosh or Paul Millsap. If the point guard spot is what I need to fill, Mike Conley, Goran Dragic and Ty Lawson will be there.
Like Jim Carrey and Cameron Diaz’s film careers, let’s try to remember Derrick Rose for his past accomplishments. Liar Liar and Any Given Sunday were great, as were Rose’s first three years in the NBA. A smart fantasy owner sees it for what it is. Focusing on the past will only get you into a deeper hole — and one draft mistake like that could be the difference between you winning and losing your league’s championship. Get it? Alllll-righty then!
Follow SethDaSportsMan on Twitter at, you guessed it, @SethDaSportsMan, for quality fantasy sports advice and the deepest veneration of all things Nicolas Cage
