Beasley, Rose set for first meeting as professionals

MIAMI — Derrick Rose and Michael Beasley will be forever linked. That's an inevitability for players who get chosen No. 1 and No. 2 in an NBA draft.

So on some level, it's fitting their first pro game - one that won't have fans, won't count in standings and will likely be long forgotten in a few days - will pit them against one another. Rose's Chicago Bulls face Beasley's Miami Heat on Monday, one of three games that will open the Orlando summer league's weeklong schedule.

For a meaningless matchup, there's an abundance of big-game hype.

And it almost seems like neither 19-year-old can truly understand why.

"I didn't even know we're playing Miami first," Rose said. "I'm not going to be checking him."

"If you want to make it a Mike Beasley and Derrick Rose show, go ahead," Beasley said. "But that's not how it's going to be."

Fair enough.

Beasley, Rose set for first meeting as professionals....

Beasley or Rose? Chicago Bulls can't go wrong

By DICK JERARDI
Philadelphia Daily News

MICHAEL BEASLEY or Derrick Rose? The power forward with all-court skills or the point guard with the ability to control games? That is the question for the Chicago Bulls. It is also a question for all of us.
Really, who is better? Is there any difference? Are they such dissimilar players that it really does not make any difference?

Steve Rosenberry has an opinion with a caveat. Rosenberry, a longtime Philadelphia-based NBA scout for the Sonics, recently took a scouting job with the Hawks.

"I know exactly who Beasley is as a player," Rosenberry said. "I'm closer to Beasley's talent because I know him better because I worked him out for a month. This would be a better conversation if I either worked out both or had worked out neither."

Beasley or Rose? Chicago Bulls can't go wrong....

Bulls work out Beasley, Rose next, as No. 1 pick looms

Associated Press

DEERFIELD, Ill. -- Michael Beasley kept drifting away from the podium, and he couldn't help but notice people at the hotel next door peeking through the fence to catch a glimpse of the player the Chicago Bulls could draft No. 1.

"Man, I got people behind the fence, too?" he said.


All eyes were on Beasley when he visited the Bulls' practice facility Tuesday, and Derrick Rose figures to get the same treatment this week. Holding the first pick in the NBA draft later this month, Chicago has a big decision: Beasley, a forward from Kansas State who would provide a sorely lacking scoring presence, or Rose, a point guard who just led Memphis to the NCAA championship game.

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