The Official Site of Derrick Rose

Thu, Mar 26th 2009, 14:07

Rose, Armstrong turning into a perfect pair

Before B.J. Armstrong will talk about his first client as an agent’s player representative, Derrick Rose, he wants to get one thing straight: This is Derrick’s time. Armstrong isn’t some Drew Rosenhaus-type sprouting out of T.O. like a two-headed monster whenever a camera is around.

Armstrong already had his run of 11 seasons in the league, including three championship rings from his days with the Bulls.

But when you talk about Rose, the No. 1 pick in the draft who is trying to lift Chicago back to the postseason, you have to mention the amazing circumstances that have tied him to Armstrong.

Not only was Armstrong a former NBA player, representing a NBA player, he was a point guard representing a point guard. Not only was he a point guard representing a point guard, but he was a point guard who played professionally in Chicago where his client grew up. And not only did this former Bulls running mate of Michael Jordan end up representing the kid from Simeon Academy in the Chicago Public League who wore No. 23 in college in honor of MJ, but his client ended up being drafted by the Bulls even though the team only had a 1.7 percent chance of landing the No. 1 pick in the lottery.

When that many things line up, you stop using words like “coincidence” and start going for “fate” and “destiny.” How else can you explain Armstrong leaving his post-playing career path of scouting and working as a TV analyst to become an agent and having the first player he ever represented be the No. 1 pick?

“He’s way more than an agent,” Rose says as his normally stoic face lights up. “I talk to him everyday, I can talk to him about anything and I look at him as a big brother … he’s a great person.”

In the world of corrupt agents seeping their way into prep stars’ collective consciousness by the time players reach their early teens, the way Armstrong came across Rose is refreshing.

“Just kind of being in the basketball world, I had known him,” Armstrong says. “That’s kind of how I met him; he was a high school legend here in Chicago. I don’t think anyone who follows basketball didn’t know who Derrick Rose was.”

Armstrong credits Rose’s family for trusting him with the No. 1 pick’s career. “They’ve really allowed me to just kind of be there and help him along the path,” Armstrong says.

That path includes what Armstrong calls the duality of the NBA experience: the person and the player.

“The basketball part of it is the easiest part of it,” Armstrong says. “The other part of it is the person. Derrick is transitioning from a young man who was in college a year ago and two years ago he was in high school and now he’s a professional. He has a different set of circumstances with a different set of problems that he’s been thrust into.”

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