Derrick Rose won’t play for Team USA in 2016 Rio Olympics
By Josh Hill
Derrick Rose may be one of the most exciting American players in basketball, but he won’t be representing his country at the 2016 Olympics.
It has been a rough road for Derrick Rose since he won the MVP back in 2010. The Chicago Bulls star has suffered a barrage of knee injuries that have set him way back and likely turned him into a ‘what-if’ case for the ages. We will never see the Derrick Rose we thought we were watching develop in 2010 and that’s one of the hard truths of life.
Something else we won’t be seeing is Rose representing his country in the 2016 Rio Olympics. After skipping out on the mandatory Team USA minicamp this week, Jerry Colangelo announced that Rose will not be a part of the 2016 roster and isn’t under consideration for a spot as a reserve.
“I made it mandatory for anyone to be involved going forward they had to be here,” Colangelo said on Wednesday at the Team USA practice. “I have to stand by what I said.”
Rose isn’t just blowing off the Team USA minicamp, as he’s avoiding it to make sure he can represent Chicago in the NBA rather than his country in the Olympics. This seems like a controversial decision — and to an extent it is — but this is Rose’s decision and Colangelo is respecting it. There isn’t bad blood between USA Basketball and Rose, as he was a part of the 2014 FIBA World Cup team that took him gold last summer.
Some athletes just don’t view a Gold Medal at the Olympics the same way, and Rose is clearly thinking about his teammates in Chicago as opposed to his countrymen with Team USA. There’s nothing wrong with that either, as this isn’t the burning of a bridge with team USA. Rose is still very young, and once he feels comfortable with his health, you can be sure he’s going to be under consideration for the 2020 Olympic roster when it comes time to assemble that team.