NBA Rumors: Derrick Rose's $250 Million Shoe Deal Shows It's Good to Be Good

It seems Chicago Bulls star Derrick Rose will soon be inking a $250 million shoe deal, one industry source told ESPN's Weekend Dime.

Fresh off signing a five-year contract extension with the Bulls worth nearly $95 million, Rose is said to be closing in on another lucrative deal. Per the Dime report:

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Lucrative is seriously underselling it based on the figures dribbling in to us.

One industry source insisted to ESPN.com this week that Rose's new shoe deal with adidas will easily crack nine figures and could legitimately approach the $250 million range -- as in $25 million annually over a 10-year span -- in what is known in the shoe game as a "lifetime" deal.

How can the reigning MVP possibly command those kind of dollars as a shoe endorser? Here's how: Rose, as it was explained to me, is adidas' only counter to Kobe Bryant in China. I'm told Rose already outsells LeBron James there.

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That's a heck of a lot of money to be paid to wear shoes.

To put this into perspective, this is roughly what Albert Pujols, the greatest baseball player of this generation, just got his massive contract to actually play baseball. 

I believe there's more than basketball to this deal. There's a matter of the personality involved. Essentially Derrick Rose is a good person. There isn't a person who knows him who has a bad thing to say about the Bulls star. 

This is a man who lives with his friends from school so he won't be tempted to cheat on his high school sweetheart. 

This is a man who stopped a group of kids wearing his jersey to offer them his autograph and thank them!

What he does on the court needs no embellishment—it's what he does and who he is off the court that makes him a quarter-billion dollar man. 

In an era filled with me-first athletes who point to how there is "me" in team (and ignore that it comes in the order of "e" then "m," which is proof that that's backwards thinking) and talk about themselves in the third person, it's good see a star player who is legitimately humble.

Rose is the type of guy who tears up when he thanks his mom during his MVP reception. That says a lot about a person. It says it's a guy who loves his mom and honors his parents. Of course most players love their moms, but most don't make their MVP about their mom more than about them.

It also says he's good enough to win the MVP. 

I've said if I had the talent Rose does, I would be the most arrogant guy in the world. You would not be able to shut my mouth. With Rose, it takes effort to get him to open his. When he does talk about himself, it's only to take blame for the team's failings. 

When it's time to take credit he hides behind his teammates. 

His nickname isn't "King" or "Black Mamba," it's "Pooh"! As in Winnie the...

But underneath that humility there is a fierceness and competitive streak that matches Kobe Bryant's. He didn't even celebrate his MVP Award. Why not? Because he hadn't won a championship. 

Rose told ESPN's John Greenberg:

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Rose told me he never really celebrated his many accomplishments from last season. After moping for a week in his townhouse -- "I had on my pajamas the whole time" -- he went back to work, mixing in training and family time. But he didn't throw himself a party or anything.

I didn't win a championship yet, so there's no point to celebrate," he said, his voice gaining a hint of anger. "Celebrate what? Go on talk shows for what? Because I lost? I'm not going on any shows or anything until I win a championship."

 Rose said he turned down numerous opportunities to promote his personal brand on talk shows, the ones he called, "Late, Live, all those." It's not because he's so, so humble, either.

 Ain't no point in being on there," he said. "At the end of every show they're going to ask you, 'So, what happened with whoever you lost to?' There's no point. I want to be on the show where they say, 'How did it feel to win a championship?' 'It felt great.' That's how I want to be on the show."

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That's a pretty wide gap from celebrating unwon rings, and hour long TV specials. 

It's almost as if by not worrying over his brand, Rose's is going through the roof. 

It's a good month to be Derrick Rose. He signed a five year, $95 million with the Bulls earlier. Now there's the $250 million deal. There's a lesson to be learned here: In the end, it's not the marketing—it's the brand itself that matters. 

Hopefully this is the kind of role model that will stick. Be a good person, and good things will happen. It's an easy story to appreciate.