Seven years later, Derrick Rose is here is hear to refute reports that he didn’t do a good job of recruiting LeBron James in the summer of 2010. According to Rose, he created a video to recruit the Miami Heat’s big three, and that video was sent out by the Bulls’ front office. From ESPN’s Dave McMenamin:
“Oh yeah, yeah, I tried,” Rose said after shootaround Tuesday. “People always said that I didn’t recruit. I tried to recruit. I put out the video, but, it wasn’t for me to say that. I felt like it was for the organization to say that.”
Rose said he filmed a video in which he recruited the big three to join him on a Bulls team that had a young core of Luol Deng, Taj Gibson and Joakim Noah already.
When asked why this revelation was just coming to light now, Rose replied, “I just wanted to see who had my back,” presumably referring to members of the Bulls front office that could have corrected the perception that Rose was hands-off by telling the media about the video that was filmed.
Rose said he is unaware if the video was ever viewed by James, Wade and Bosh.
“(The Bulls) didn’t say anything about it,” Rose said. “They sent it, I don’t know if they really actually looked at it or played the video, but, I made the video, but at the time it really wasn’t for me to say that.”
This somewhat contradicts a statement from Rose in 2011, when he said: “I’m not going to do that… If you want to come here, come here, but it’s not up to me to make that decision. I’m not paying them. I’m on my rookie contract.”
Two of those three players – James and Wade – will be Rose’s teammates this season in Cleveland.
