Did Knicks Drop Ball with lack of punishment after Derrick Rose disappears?

Derrick Rose (Trevor Ruszkowski-USA TODAY Sports)

This past Monday, the New York Knicks lost at home to the New Orleans Pelicans 110-96. The big story wasn’t the Knicks losing their eighth game in their last nine but instead, it was the unexplained disappearance of guard Derrick Rose.

Rose, who was at practice earlier Monday, no-showed the game against the Pelicans without notifying the Knicks organization. After the game, Rose’s whereabouts were still unknown to many with Joakim Noah only saying that he spoke to him and that he was ok.

“Obviously, Derrick’s one of our better players and when he’s not here it’s tough, but just happy that everything is OK with him,” Noah said.

That’s great to hear that Derrick Rose is one of the best players on the New York Knicks and that he is ok but can we ask the question…where the hell was Derrick Rose? Rose went back to Chicago alleging he had family issues that he needed to take care of. Even with that reasoning, not informing the team of your leaving is unprofessional. Reports had Rose upset at being benched in the fourth quarter of the last few games by coach Jeff Hornacek with many believing this was Rose pouting about that fact. Rose disputes this claim saying that the episode on Monday had nothing to do with benching.

“It had nothing to do with the team or basketball,” Rose said on Tuesday at practice. “That’s the first time I ever felt like that emotional and I had to be with my family.”

And of course, the Knicks just went right along with the excuse.

“His explanation with the family is totally understandable,” Hornacek told reporters.

Rose received an undisclosed fine for his deserting of his team (he’s making $21 million so a fine is couch cushion money) but he received no suspension. So, let’s review: a starting point guard of an NBA team leaves the team unannounced and goes home to a different state. He calls the team and asks them to arrange a flight for him to come back to the team and explains that it was a “family issue” and only receives a fine but no further punishment for his transgression.

This is the epitome of a professional sports franchise who has no problem being a national laughingstock and a franchise that has no ambition of ever being successful.

What the Knicks should have done was suspend Rose for one game as a punishment for his leaving the team. The New York Knicks are in the middle of a slide where their playoff hopes are dwindling by the day. The ESPN Basketball Power Index predicts the Knicks to finish 10 games under .500 with just a 10 percent chance of making the playoffs. But hey it’s ok because the players can apparently just leave the team whenever they want for any reason they want and just claim “family issues”.

This all comes after Rose made the Donald Trump-esque exclamation calling the 2016-2017 Knicks a “super team” and saying that they will be successful this season. Now, after spending millions this past offseason, it may be time for the Knicks to finally come to the realization that now is the time to blow this team up and that starts with getting rid of Derrick Rose.

Derrick Rose showed that he has no loyalty and a lack of allegiance for the Knicks and his teammates. His leaving the team on Monday showed that he only thinks about himself and not the greater good of the Knicks, and that is something you don’t want young players like Kristaps Porzingis seeing and believing as acceptable behavior. Rose showed that he is selfish and with a report having Rose looking for max deal worth $150 million this summer, he’s not worth the time or the money on this team anymore.

Derrick Rose is a playing to prove that he can still play at a high level in the NBA. However, after Monday Derrick Rose showed what kind of a person he is and the New York Knicks showed how little backbone they have. It is imperative that the Knicks begin to show some guts and show their fans that they still give a damn and trade Derrick Rose.