Tying a couple threads together — and knocking wood for SC30, just in case — have any two concurrent young stars risen and fallen as sharply as Rose and Curry in the past 3-4 years? Going into the 2011-12 season, 99.9% of NBA fans would have laughed at the idea of even comparing the two (I would have sheepishly trotted out Curry's superior efficiency and plus-minus numbers when healthy, but felt like a total Warrior fanboy for doing so). Now ... well, people would laugh at the the idea of even comparing the two. While America's Sweetheart (or America's Sweetheart #2, after Riley Curry) continues his MVP / World Champ tour, adorning every billboard, hanging with Colbert and Fallon, playing golf with the POTUS, etc., Rose keeps making his own headlines...
• Rose Says "I Know I'm Great"
• Rose Looking Forward to Free Agency So He Can Get Paid (While Making $100M from the Bulls and Another $200M from Adidas)
• Rose Breaks Face In First Day of Practice
• Rose Says Group Sex Was Consensual
Jeez. It's like ... the anti-Curry.
To be clear: even setting aside the obvious differences in public image / off-court stuff and injury luck, Rose in his so-called MVP season was nowhere near Curry's MVP level (by plus-minus, scoring efficiency, scoring volume, defense, rebounding, or any other measure). But — setting aside the Curry phenomenon, since it's not really fair to anyone — it's really shocking how badly Rose's game and image has crashed and burned from age 22 to age 26. You know it's bad for an A-List NBA superstar when Stephen A. Smith has stopped defending you and your local paper is talking about your
"Special Brand of Stupid"...