Jalen Rose says he’s joined a team whose players don’t know what it takes to be on a winner.
Rose is 0-6 as a Knick and looks for his first victory in the orange-and-blue tonight against his old club, the Raptors, at the Garden. The Knicks are actually 0-7 since they swapped Antonio Davis for Rose and a late first-round pick 10 days, as Rose sat on the bench that night in Toronto.
“One of the things we’re trying to do is learn how to win,” Rose said. “A lot of guys are learning that on the fly. When learning on the fly, unfortunately your record shows it. We have guys who’ve never been in winning situations
in the NBA. When I mean learn how to win, I just don’t mean score of the game, but how to practice weaknesses and enhance strengths. Practice every day, play hard every night, sacrifice to the guy next to you.”
Without Rose, the Raptors are 4-2. Since Davis reported, Toronto is 3-1. Rose is getting desperate. “It will be sweet for my first victory as a Knick to come against anybody,” Rose said.
Rose, 32, made a stinging indictment on how far the 14-37 Knicks have fallen when he compared his leaving Toronto to when he left Indiana for the fabled “Horri-Bulls.”
“It’s not like baseball where if you play 10 years you have a choice of where you go,” Rose said. “What’s helped me deal with this situation before I’ve been through this indirectly when I got traded from Indiana after having the best overall record to the Chicago Bulls that had the worst record in the league. I had a choice: Do I show up there and play hard every day, or do I moan and not get on the freeway and go to Chicago. I chose the (former). It’s a humbling experience.”
In other words, Toronto was paradise compared to New York. Brown has wanted Rose to step up as a floor general and facilitator of the offense.
After his 11-assist Knick debut, Rose’s production has gone south in that department. He’s averaging 17.5 points and 4.2 assists but is no difference-maker.
Brown believes he’s also been trying to do too much on his own. “I told him sometimes when we’re going bad, he’s pretty competitive and tries to take it upon himself,” Brown said. “I admire that. I told him, you got to make sure you run the club especially when things go bad, have a couple of bad possessions, get the ball to the right people, slow us down.”
Brown said Rose has also been “on pins and needles” in the locker room, not yet stepping up as a leader in their fracturing locker-room. “I didn’t come here thinking I was a world beater, think I could change things overnight,” said Rose, who’s making $14.7 million this season. “I just want to be part of something successful. Not only try to be a leader, try to help guys understand and learn through the fire what it takes to win.”