Wolves G Rose sounds off on doubters

Now a member of the Minnesota Timberwolves and looking to make yet another return to the NBA, Derrick Rose sounded off on his critics in an interview with ESPN on Saturday.

Rose joined the Wolves earlier this week after being traded by the Cleveland Cavaliers and released by the Utah Jazz. With two teams giving up on him in the last month, the 29-year-old said he feels motivated to show his doubters he can still play basketball at a high level.

"Big time," Rose told ESPN. "I'm 29, they're acting like I'm 39. I'm still able to push the ball up the floor, they're acting like I'm in a wheelchair. All these injuries -- (like) even coming here to take my physical, (the Timberwolves medical staff) looked at my physical, they couldn't believe how my body was in good shape. Little things like that push me to go out here and work even harder, because on the outside looking in, you probably think I walk with a limp, you probably think I'm wearing ice bags every day, this and that. Man, it's totally opposite of that.

"I feel great. My body feels great. And this last time, even getting injured, my injuries, period, the last time I got injured I was pushed, taken out of the air. How can I stop that? How can I stop from getting taken out of the air? I tried to prevent myself from falling, I twisted my ankle, but people from the outside, the basketball fans now, they're on Snapchat, they're on Twitter, Instagram, whatever, just looking at highlights, just looking at reports, 'Oh, he injured himself again.' Did you watch the play? No. You're writing a comment before you even watched the play, you didn't even watch the whole game, so I can't take you serious."

"This is how I feel about it, the whole perspective on it," Rose added. "You could have your perspective on me, as far as I'm a bum, I can't play, I can't shoot, this and that, all right, cool, I have no hard feelings with that. I'm cool with that. (If) that's how you feel, that's how you feel, but at the same time, I don't need your (expletive) validation. I know who I am, I know what type of player I am. So you respect that and I respect that (point of view) and we should be good. That's how I feel about it."

Early in his career with the Chicago Bulls, Rose was a three-time All-Star and was named the NBA MVP in his third season in 2010-11. With the Timberwolves, he'll once again be playing for Tom Thibodeau, who was his coach in Chicago from 2010-15, and will have former teammates Jimmy Butler and Taj Gibson by his side.

"I feel like I don't have to prove anything," Rose said. "It's more me being happy with playing basketball and knowing that I gave it my all. And I walked away from it whenever I choose to walk away from it. This next phase in my life is preparing me for life after basketball, but while I'm in it, basketball is my everything. I never think about nothing else. I don't got a foundation, I don't got all these things that other players have because basketball is my No. 1. I feel like you can't love two things at once; the way I love basketball and how much I sacrificed for the game, I'm all in. I'm all in until the day I retire or whenever that day (comes when) I go away from the game. I'm all in."

Rose told ESPN he plans on playing "until I'm mentally, physically, just drained." And he said it's "a joke" that people believe he shouldn't be on an NBA team.

"I can't take it too serious where like I said if you don't know who you are you could easily get caught up into the mix of wanting to defend yourself, but I don't need to do that because a lot of people's grudges with me or they dislike me," Rose said. "It's like (for) personal reasons, you know what I mean? Or jealously or something like that, so I take it for what it is and just laugh at it and smile at it because I don't need that karma to even speak on them or even waste my energy trying to defend myself with people like that."

--Field Level Media