Source: Minnesota Timberwolves | instagram
The People is our opinion section for all things concerning Black Chicago. In this piece, the well-connected Larry Legend has a few words for all of you so-called Derrick Rose fans.

Some call him D.Rose. Some call him the Most Valuable Player. Others call him Pooh – personally, I think only his family and real friends should have this luxury, but that’s neither here nor there. His mama named him Derrick, so that’s what I’ma call him.

No matter what anybody calls him, there’s one indisputable fact about Derrick Rose: he’s Englewood grown. So no matter what jersey he’s rocking in the NBA, you can’t take the Englewood out the kid.

See. I’m not one of those Derrick Rose fans that switched up on him. They said he was washed. They said he couldn’t shoot. They said he was finished in this league.

Nah, bro. I’ve appreciated his game from his days of Meanstreets AAU in Chicago to his NBA stardom. I remember how many people gave up on Derrick when he tore his ACL in 2012 playoff game against the Philadelphia 76ers. But if it’s one thing we’ve learned from DJ Khaled, it’s this: don’t trust “they.”

They don’t know what it’s like to have to eat Flamin’ Hots and a super donut for breakfast. They don’t know about the football games at Gately Park, or the juke parties at The Rink. They don’t know about the excellence that is mild sauce. They are not from where we’re from, so how could they possibly know the type of people we breed. We’re the type who aren’t afraid to fall down seven times and get up eight. We use all the negativity as motivation and proceed to drop 50 points on niggas’ heads – just to let them know that folks heard all that shit.

I’m one of those people who saw Derrick growing out his dreads, and instantly knew he was finna kill.

Source: Derrick Rose | Facebook

Then, out of NOWHERE, the same Derrick Rose that they said was “washed” turned around and scored a career-high 50 points in a game against the Utah Jazz a few games ago. That’s SIX YEARS after his first fall.

Then last night, my boy dropped 22 points in 31 minutes against his old crew, the Chicago Bulls.

I say all of this to say: don’t y’all ever say Derrick Rose is washed ever again. The injuries, the tabloids, the media, the fair-weather fans, they’re all just the concrete that Derrick rose from.

Larry Legend is one of the hosts of Smoked Out Saturdaze, a YouTube show for people who enjoy good conversation over some of the finer trees in life.