The commercial series was released so many knee surgeries ago, and its premise not initially realized, that it’s easy to forget the intensity with which the impactful last line is delivered.
“I would die on that court,” Rose said emphatically, genuinely, back in Fall 2012. “Like die.”
The then-Bulls star added a head shake for emphasis as he spoke the climactic line in his shoe company’s advertising campaign touting “The Return” from his April 2012 left ACL tear that, at least for the 2012-13 season, never happened.
Rose’s career always has been one of extremes. And so it is again as Rose blasted downcourt with fearlessness and ferocity Monday night in Minneapolis, briefly the best player on a court that featured presumptive MVP James Harden and Rose’s All-NBA Timberwolves teammate Jimmy Butler.
You can’t go AWOL from your team twice in two seasons as Rose did, one of them unexcused, without damaging credibility about commitment to the game. Nevertheless, here Rose is, back on a grand stage, showing flashes of that rare combination of strength and speed that defined his almost too-good-to-be-true ascension and threatened to revolutionize the game before the full-on shift to 3-point shooting.
Perhaps just as importantly, Rose is coming up big in the quieter moments.
Despite not signing until March 8, Timberwolves insiders say Rose was as genuinely excited as anybody when the franchise ended its 14-year playoff drought by defeating the Nuggets in overtime on the regular-season’s final day. That’s how happy Rose was to return to the postseason for the first time since he and Butler did their odd, passive-aggressive dance in June 2015 as LeBron James, this time with the Cavaliers, ended another Bulls season in Tom Thibodeau’s final game as Bulls coach.
In the locker room, Rose is a respected and respectful teammate again. The familiar embrace of Thibodeau, who always has had Rose’s back, doesn’t hurt.
Rose will be an unrestricted free agent for the second straight offseason. His first foray failed to produce the interest and financial windfall that he oddly alluded to in unsolicited fashion at Bulls’ media day in September 2015, a full 21 months early.
When Rose signed a one-year, $2.1 million deal to team with the same James who denied Rose’s Bulls teams so many times, he did so in large part to chase a championship. Instead, Rose developed bone spurs in his ankle and left the Cavaliers to contemplate his future.
Unlike when he did so to attend to a personal matter in 2016-17 with the Knicks, at least this time Rose’s absence was excused.
Rose returned to the Cavaliers — and the rotation — in mid-January, only to get traded to the Jazz a month later when Cleveland reshaped its team at the trade deadline. The Jazz waived Rose, who was out of the league until Thibodeau came calling.
During his forced — as opposed to self-imposed — exile, video of Rose shooting short, one-handed jumpers with a nondescript rebounder at Cleveland State surfaced. Befitting the extremes — and polarizing reactions — that Rose’s career has produced, some people viewed the workout as pathetic. Others opted for perseverant.
Rose is averaging 14.8 points on 52 percent shooting in 23.8 minutes in Minnesota’s four playoff games against the top-seeded Rockets. Despite knocking down five of seven 3-point attempts in this series, Rose is a career 29.6 percent 3-point shooter. And he doesn’t get to the free-throw line consistently anymore, averaging, at 1.8 attempts, 5.1 attempts fewer than in his 2010-11 MVP season.
But given the widespread love that spread through social media Monday night, from former teammates to foes, it’s clear that many people are pulling for Rose. Whether he projects to be a frontline starter or volume reserve scorer next season, at least Rose has placed future possibilities — even if he chooses to walk away — back more on his terms.
For all he’s endured physically, he at least deserves that.
kcjohnson@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @kcjhoop
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