Derrick Rose has his priorities in order.
The Bulls guard made that very clear during Monday’s Bulls media day.
And while clearing his name from a lawsuit filed this summer by a “Jane Doe’’ alleging that Rose and two of his friends sexually assaulted her back in 2013 is on his to-do list, it’s definitely not atop it.
No, getting paid when his contract is up after the 2016-17 season is priority No. 1.
“Oh yeah, I’ve been moved on,’’ Rose said, when asked about putting the lawsuit behind him. “This whole summer I had tunnel vision. My mindset was just making sure that I was working out every day, and spending as much time as possible with my son. And focusing on those two things. Making sure my family is financially stable, as far as seeing all the money that they’re passing out in this league. Just telling the truth. Just knowing that my day will be coming up soon, and it’s not for me. It’s for P.J. and his future, so that’s what I’m thinking about now.’’
When asked again what he meant by “my day will be coming,’’ Rose said free agency.
“Yeah,’’ Rose said. “I’m preparing for it.’’
Not that Rose’s comments should come as a surprise to anyone, especially considering his “meetings and graduation’’ comment from last season, but the timing of it was again a head-scratcher. At the same time, it was so Derrick Rose.
Rose was asked if he was looking forward to his free agency so that he could test the open market or looking to stay a Bull, and did respond, “Here, here, it’s here, but when you talk about that much money the only thing you can do is prepare for it. I’m trying to prepare, not only myself, but my family. And I’m doing this all for my son. Like I said, I’m thinking about his future. Even though we’re alright, we’re comfortable, when you talk about that x-amount of dollars, I think it raises everyone’s eyebrows, so there’s nothing wrong with being over-prepared.’’
Not that Rose was avoiding all the questions of the lawsuit.
“I think you all saw everything that was put out,’’ Rose said. “I will be proven innocent, but at the same time it hasn’t effected anything. It’s not true. I take it as motivation. I feel like the devil is just working. I feel like I’m on the right track as far as where I want to be at in my life, and the direction I want to go. And I feel like that when you’re that focused people just try and take you down, so I’m very confident that I will be proven innocent.’’
Rose wasn’t the only member of the Bulls organization to have some head-scratching moments.
General manager Gar Forman seemed very uncomfortable when asked about the timetable from when the TMZ Rose story was first reported and when the organization actually knew the details of the lawsuit.
“I don’t want to … I’m not going to go into internal details as far as what we knew or when we knew,’’ Forman said. “When you talk about a report I assume you’re talking about the first time that I had seen anything in the media, was the TMZ report that came out.’’
When asked if he was caught by surprise when that Aug. 26 story hit the internet, Forman responded, “Yeah, again, it’s the first I had seen anything reported on it. Yeah.’’
What Forman did say was that Rose was “part of our family. He’s got our full support.’’
