Catching up with Derrick Rose and Dwight Howard on the set of their commercial shoots in LA.
by Aggrey Sam
I don’t know about you, but I’ve never been that caught up in the entertainment business. Maybe music, but going behind the scenes of TV and movies really don’t appeal to me.
After covering him up close for half a season, Derrick Rose seems like the same type of cat. So when I went out to Los Angeles last week to catch with the All-Star point guard, I was curious to see how he was handling the Hollywood treatment. At the same time, I got the opportunity to see the glamorous life myself (even stayed in Beverly Hills) and now that I’m a newly multi-platformed type of dude, here’s some footage of my interview with Derrick at the adidas commercial shoot for his first signature shoe (a bit of which was used by CSNChicago), the adidas Rose, dropping in the fall. As the Bulls’ face of the franchise, the hometown hero isn’t going anywhere, but he still shares his thoughts on Chicago’s future, his ever-rising star status and who the team should go after in free agency and much more. Enjoy:
One guy who’s used to being on the small screen, Dwight Howard was filming the commercial for his newest kicks (the adidas Beast, also out in the fall) simultaneously, so I also caught up with him for a few. It wasn’t in me to film the man while he was getting rubbed down, but we did discuss a bunch of topics, including free agency.
“I haven’t heard anything crazy, but I will say, I think LeBron might need to stay in Cleveland. I mean, they’ve had the best team the past two years in the regular season; they won 66 games. I just think it’s tough to win a championship, people don’t understand that,” Howard told me. “Those other guys, they might need to stay also. I think Chris Bosh might need to leave–he has no chance there–but Amar’e's got a good point guard; they just got to the [Western] Conference finals.”
“You start winning, you start to build something, a good team and just because you have a bad season, you don’t complete all your goals–you don’t want to give up. “Sometimes it’s not always–what’s the old saying?–sometimes the grass is not greener on the other side. You might want to stay on that same side,” continued the All-Star center. “You’ve just got to stay patient. I’ve had years–my first couple years–where I was mad, but I was like, ‘I’m not gonna complain about it, I’m gonna try to change it.’ That’s what they should do–try to change it.”
Interesting takes in the midst of this madness, especially from two players who aren’t going anywhere this offseason. While it’s obvious both Rose and Howard could use some help to get their teams to the promised land, it’s clear neither is all that desperate, regardless of what moves are made by their respective organizations. Even better, neither of them seemed affected by their (for the first time, in Derrick’s case) star turns, hopefully meaning that none of this season’s drama will be repeated when it’s time for their new deals.
Aggrey Sam covers the Chicago Bulls for Comcast SportsNet Chicago.
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