WEST POINT — As a Chicago product, Derrick Rose admits to being in awe around Knicks president Phil Jackson.
“He’s like a legend in Chicago,’’ Rose said.
At Army’s Christl Arena on Thursday, Rose saw a little of the old, feisty Zen Master, the former coach who led the Bulls to six NBA titles in the 1990s when Rose was a child. The Knicks were trying to run Jackson’s triangle offense and someone made the wrong pass.
“He got mad at us one time we were running the offense and didn’t throw the ball into the post,’’ Rose said. “He came over a little grumpy. First time I ever saw him like that.”
For the first time, Rose acknowledged the complexities of the triangle, about which he knew nothing. Knicks coaches added elements of the system during Wednesday night’s practice session.
“I played against it,’’ said Rose, a defendant in a $21.5 million civil sex assault trial that begins Oct. 4 in Los Angeles. “There’s 40 to 50 options on one side of the floor. It’s like getting a little space for creativity. If you’re doing it the right way, you can do whatever you want. You just got to know where you’re going.’’
That’s the hard part.
“For right now it’s complicated a little bit because it’s new to us and foreign,’’ Rose said. “The more we work on it and coaches put it in, it’ll be a little easier.’’
Rose admits he’s more of a pick-and-roll point guard, and he expects that to be the offense in closing moments of games. In the final seconds of Thursday’s scrimmage, he showed his anger after getting stripped at midcourt by Chasson Randle, who converted it into a game-winning bucket. Afterward, Rose kicked the lid of the ice bucket.
“If it was a real game, I would’ve [expletive] really flipped out,’’ Rose said.
“I think at the end of the game, a game-winning shot, I don’t think it’s going to be the triangle. It’s going to be a 1-3 pick and roll. Either me or Melo [Carmelo Anthony] will have to create for someone and take the shot.’’
Rose’s agent is B.J. Armstrong, a former Bulls point guard on three of Jackson’s title teams. A source said Armstrong never was a big fan of the triangle.
“We talked about it,’’ Rose said. “B.J. and I are two different players. He’s a shooter. My game is playmaking. B.J.’s job was really to just get Mike [Michael Jordan] the ball and get out of the way. I don’t want to say it that way, but that was his job, man. He told me they had the personnel when they played.’’
Rose remembers the mayhem in the streets of Chicago after Bulls titles.
“I couldn’t celebrate. ‘OK, we won a championship.’ I couldn’t go out to celebrate and run outside because my mom thought it was too dangerous outside,” he said. “I had to sit at the window and watch everybody celebrate.’’
Rose said he and Jackson have yet to have a one-on-one meeting regarding the triangle or his civil suit over an alleged sexual assault in 2013 with a former girlfriend.
“Not yet,’’ Rose said. “I don’t want to bug him about it. I don’t want to rush him to have that conversation. It’s going to happen whenever it does.’’
“It’s an honor just being around him,’’ Rose added. “Even being in his presence and part of what he’s building, I feel like something good is coming my way just by being associated with him.’’
