2011 NBA Playoffs: Derrick Rose to Prove People Wrong or Vindicate Voting?

After trailing for most of the game, the top-seeded Bulls and Derrick Rose dispatched the outmatched No. 8 seed Pacers in Game 1 of the playoffs.
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There was a lot of debate the final month-plus of the season as to who was Eastern Conference’s best player, whom many experts believe will end up with the NBA MVP hardware.

And although the voting for the league’s best player is based solely on regular season action, the Playoffs are the perfect place to prove people wrong or to vindicate one’s vote.

And watching the Bulls struggle with the Playoffs' worst team, Indiana, I have to wonder how long it's going to take for the Bulls to remember that they are the Bulls, and that they're playing the Pacers.

It seems that toward the end of the season, Derrick Rose seemed to distance himself from South Beach Talent LeBron James, as the Chicago point guard led his lower profile to atop an Eastern Conference packed full of stars (see Heat, Celtics, Magic and Knicks).

But en route to leading the Bulls to the No. 1 seed in the East, Rose has elevated himself to star status, putting himself ahead of Boston’s big three of Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen (I would add Rajon Rondo to this list of stars by now as well), Miami’s talented trio (James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh), New York’s dynamic duo of (Amar’e Stoudemire and Carmelo Anthony) and Orlando’s Dwight Howard.

And even though Western Conference superstar Kobe Bryant seems to be Rose’s (or James for that matter) competition for MVP in the West, it’s clear that the East is dominating the NBA Playoffs in terms of sheer star power.

NBA.com’s Steve Aschburner wrote last month that Rose was distancing himself from Bryant in the race, as well as where that puts Chicago’s super guard in terms of historical implications.

But this was before Bryant and Gay Slur Gate forced and apology from the Lakers’ star and earned him a fine slap in the wallet. That was, perhaps, the final separator for Rose to overtake the West’s only real MVP Candidate

ESPN’s Michael Wilbon, a well-respected journalist and unapologetic Chicago homer, said the award will go to Rose, without question.

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