Written by Ananth Pandian at CBSSports.com
Minutes after the start of Monday’s game between the New York Knicks and the New Orleans Pelicans at Madison Square Garden, New York’s personal relations team announced that Derrick Rose was “not with the team.” No further explanation was given by team, and reason for that could be because the Knicks themselves had no idea where Rose was.
According to The Vertical’s Adrian Wojnarowski, Rose was at shootaround but did not tell anyone in the Knicks organization that he had to miss the game. Rose didn’t even tell any of his teammates — like good friend Joakim Noah — about his whereabouts. Wojnarowski also adds that Rose was “privately fuming” after Knicks coach Horancek benched him in a win to the Bucks on Friday and their player-coach relationship “has been frayed.”
Team officials were unable to reach Rose by phone – nor get answers from his closest confidants – in the immediate time prior to the opening tip, league sources told The Vertical
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Rose, who’ll be a free agent this summer, has been increasingly frustrated with how this Knicks season has unfolded, culminating with him privately fuming over his diminished late-game role in Friday night’s victory in Milwaukee, sources said. Knicks coach Jeff Hornacek played undrafted rookie Ron Baker over Rose in the fourth quarter.
Rose’s relationship with Hornacek has been frayed in recent weeks, league sources told The Vertical.
This is an extremely odd situation, especially since Rose was at shootaround. But the good news is that after losing 110-96 to the Pelicans, Noah told reporters that Rose is doing okay.
Joakim just said everything is okay with D. Rose. Says he spoke to him after the game but won’t share the conversation: “He’s okay.”
— Nick Metallinos (@NickMetallinos) January 10, 2017
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