what comes through is his maturity, class, leadership abilities, humility and an intense drive to reach his optimum potential, which is virtually unlimited.

Paxson, being a Catholic, should kneel down every day and say a Rosary to thank God for his good fortune. I think this franchise would still be a trainwreck if they had drafted Beasly.

ahead of only Jemele Hill.

They are both god fuckin’ awful.

and it made me go “whoa, that’s right!” Here were David Thorpe’s preseason rookie rankings.

6th, for the #1 pick in the draft. ’Atta boy, Derrick.

for Derrick to actually say in a public interview was this:

Rose: Honestly? The minute I heard them say that the No. 1 pick in the draft — and I’m a guard — wasn’t even being considered for winning the Rookie of the Year, I went right to work. I went right to the gym. I wanted to prove them wrong. I’m the type of person that needs something to push me. And the people around me, like my friends and people in my family, they know it, too. So they feed me things, they tell me things that someone said about me or something someone wrote, they know that’ll get me. I’m the type of person that looks for that. One little thing. Something someone wrote, something a coach said, something from someone who doubts or don’t expect something from me, or they think that I can’t do something … I hold on to it.

That reminds me a lot of the stories I’ve read about Jordan over the years and Tiger Woods as well, using any perceived slight as motivation to fuel them and drive them to keep pushing and to prove people wrong. I hope that’s an indication of what’s to come from Derrick, and hey, who knows, maybe someone he knows reads Blog-A-Bull and has seen the criticisms of his defense lobbed at him by myself and many others, and it’ll just drive him to be that much better on the end. I surely hope that’s the case.