On the eve of a new season, Chicago Bulls point guard Derrick Rose admitted that he still hasn’t completely gotten over the fact that his team lost in five games to the Miami Heat in the Eastern Conference finals last spring.  Read more after the jump.
“I’m not over it yet,” he said before the Bulls’ Saturday morning practice at UCLA. “I’m still thinking about it. That was one of the things that is still driving me right now is wanting to be able to be in that position again to see what I’m going to do about it. I think I’ve been preparing myself for it, but we will have to see.”
Rose said he can still remember the disappointment he felt after the game that night.
“Walking off at the end, at the (United Center),” Rose said. “Putting everything on me because I thought it was my fault and just working out this whole summer.”
Rose has said repeatedly this summer that he feels responsible for the Bulls’ meltdown against Miami.
“I put a lot of pressure on myself,” he said. “I had the ball 85, 90 percent of the time. I’m one of the leaders on the team, so to me it was my fault.”
Rose spent even more time in the gym working on his game with his personal trainer, Rob McClanaghan, this summer so that he wouldn’t have to feel the pain of losing again.
“(I) worked out a lot,” Rose said. “Watched a lot of film. Just going over things. Just trying to be more efficient this year. Not turn the ball over. Those are one thing you can do to try to beat a team is eliminate the things that you’re doing so that you can have a greater chance of winning.”
Time to get over it, focus on the new season. It wasn’t your fault, the heat was simply the better team, now with RIP, it should help out.