NBA Top 50: Derrick Rose (No. 12) ~ no title

Derrick_Rose_Adidas, originally uploaded by justlisten shh.

OtB is counting down the days 'til the NBA 2009-10 season tips off by ranking the top 50 players in the league. On Tuesday there are/were 12 days left.

This was inevitable. The battle between Rondo and Rose cemented it. I had to offer up a salute in the hopes that we get to see lots of battles between the two young guards in years to come. Rose gets the nod here because he's poised more perfectly to take the reins of an up-and-coming team. Rondo looks like he'll have to outlast the current era and then see what rises from the ashes with him. Rose? He's ready to go now.

If I compared the entire Celtics power base to British Kings of Olde, let me expound upon the potential that is Derrick Rose by saying...well, he's the Black Knight. For all you neophytes out there who are confused and thinking of Batman now, realize that I'm still on the Arthurian tip, whether by choice or by guided voice I know not. Anyway, Rose is the Black Night because he exudes mystery. He is the x-factor. The knight not feasting at the round table who still manages to carpe diem. Rose, for all his laconic early-Kareem-isms, comes rife with metaphorical propensities. Think of all the things swirling through my head that I could do with the surname Rose. I could go Shakespearean. I could talk about the line-up of myths wherein flush'ed-of-cheek (and that's not tongue in cheek toilet humor either, until this parenthetical) maidens expire breath upon last breath on pillows soft as the lips' kiss bearing virginal true love, and do all and so behind a veritable thicketry of petal-adorned thorns.

The Black Knight is Taunting You, originally uploaded by FilCab.

I could go messianic and say dude is the savior Chi-town's been waiting for to step into the storied shoes, and I could point out that he follows the story-line almost to a T, coming into the league during an era of "super-powers," coming out gang-busters like India into the international market, awash in old and complex mythos that is at once highly derivative and the embodiment of original thought, all in one, quick, pillow'ed breath. Just like Jordan, Rose could emerge from the tussle as the dominant force in the league. I could talk those tones to death. I could even go new-traditionally and drop off some Basketball Reference knowledge. I could do all these things, and more. (But I can't get next to you), so, instead, we go to the video.