Derrick Rose Must Channel Michael Jordan to Win an NBA Championship

Derrick Rose will never be able to escape the Michael Jordan comparisons.

These comparisons aren't exactly fair, of course. Rose and Jordan are two distinctly different players, and Rose entered the NBA roughly a decade after Jordan left it (excluding his comeback with the Washington Wizards). Rose and Jordan are products of different eras.

It doesn't take a genius to figure out why Rose and Jordan so often end up in the same sentence. Rose plays for the Chicago Bulls, and Jordan played for the Chicago Bulls. Jordan won five MVPs, and Rose has already won one. Jordan led the Bulls to six NBA championships, and Rose has been given the responsibility of leading the Bulls to several more NBA championships.

So you see, they are practically brothers.

Except not. Rose cleared that up in his recent interview with GQ Magazine, which featured brutally honest quotes from Rose on a number of different subjects. One of those subjects was his relationship, or lack thereof, with His Airness:

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"I've run into him a couple of times, but we don't have a relationship. His titles drive me. I'm not scared of him; if anything, it makes me work harder when I do train."

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It's no surprise that Rose and Jordan aren't exactly best buds. M.J. doesn't spend a whole lot of time in Chicago anymore. He's too busy running the Charlotte Bobcats (into the ground). The bright side of his absence is that it allows Rose to be in Jordan's shadow without actually being in Jordan's shadow.

But Rose is probably more in Jordan's shadow now than he ever was at any point last season. He was so good last season, and the Bulls were so good behind him, that it was hard to focus on anybody other than the eventual league MVP. And indeed, you stand a good chance of missing Rose if you blink while watching him play. He can do things out on the court that no one else can. 

This year is different. It's been a tough year for Rose, as various injuries have robbed him of a lot of time out on the court. Despite his frequent absences, the Bulls have the best record in the Eastern Conference.

To a degree, that team's success calls into question just how valuable Rose is to this Bulls team. This is a disadvantage for Rose in the whole Rose vs. Jordan game that fans and the media like to play, as nobody ever had to sit back and question whether Jordan's presence was of utmost importance for the Bulls.

So as strange as it is to say it, or even think it, Rose will head into the postseason with quite a bit to prove. Given the season the Bulls have had largely without him, the only acceptable outcome for the postseason is to go to the NBA Finals with him. Some will undoubtedly argue that they have to win the Finals.

Unfortunately, nothing can be taken for granted with Rose. Good health has been fleeting for him this season, and he's had his ups and downs even when he has been healthy. He simply hasn't been the dynamic presence that he was last season.

This is also where it behooves me to mention that the reason the Bulls were bounced out of the playoffs last year was exactly because Rose wasn't a dynamic presence. He played well in the first game of the Eastern Conference Finals, but in the four games that came after the Miami Heat bottled him up. Rose's teammates were unable to pick up the slack.

We now know just how deep and how talented the Bulls are, but Rose is the linchpin to this team's hopes of winning a championship this season. He needs to get them there, and he needs to win it for them.

This is where Rose's Jordan-inspired motivation will come in handy. We laud M.J. for a lot of things, but the thing we laud him for the most is the fact that he would not be denied when he was out on the court. That's a quality Rose needs to emulate.

There are reasons for optimism in Rose's case. While we laud Jordan for being the ultimate winner, what we often forget is that he had to take his lumps before he managed to win the NBA Finals in 1991. He wasn't able to beat the Boston Celtics on his own, and then came the Detroit Pistons roadblock.

Jordan was able to start winning championships because a) he got a lot better, and b) because the team around him got a lot better.

We have more than enough evidence that the team around Rose has gotten a lot better from last year to this year. What Rose's supporting cast lacks in star power, it makes up for in grit and determination.

What we don't know right know is if Rose is capable of putting this Bulls team on his back like Jordan used to with his teams. That's what it will take for the Bulls to win a championship.

So, Mr. Rose, do what you have to do to make sure you're healthy for the playoffs. Then show us what you can do.