D Rose Tour in full bloom at Manila

Derrick Rose made his long-awaited return to the Philippines a few days ago for the final overseas stop of his D Rose Worldwide Tour.

As explained by Adidas Philippines' Country Manager Georges Youssef, “This tour is an expansive effort to connect Derrick Rose with his fans and support the growth of basketball on an international scale.”

The 2009 Rookie of the Year and the 2011 Most Valuable Player spent a couple of days here, with a busy itinerary.

On his arrival on Saturday, he was the guest of honor in the Adidas Unite All Originals party. Sunday may have been Cheerdance day at the Mall of Asia Arena, but if you were at the SMART-Araneta Coliseum, you were witness to the D Rose Tour's 3-on-3 tournament.

The tournament brought together 16 top high school teams from the ASEAN region, with the chance and opportunity to be playing in front of the NBA superstar. Thailand won the tournament, beating out Arellano in the final.

Rose also showed that he is really on track from his recovery from his knee injury, playing in an exhibition 3-on-3 with the Thais against a select group of PBA stars. He also gamely played two-ball (with the lovely Isabelle Daza as his partner against the YHs) and a three-point shootout (narrowly losing to reigning 3-pt king Chris Tiu) during that event.

On Monday, he held a general press conference with the media in the morning, with the general consensus from the discussion being the following:

1. He knows he is ready to play for this season, and that the best advice he got was from his agent, former Chicago Bulls guard BJ Armstrong, "be patient."
2. He, and the rest of the Chicago Bulls, trusts and buys into Tom Thibodeaux system. (Thibs has been criticized for overextending some of his players, namely Luol Deng and Joakim Noah.) He also believes that Thibs is a genius, especially on the defensive end.
3. He has a hand with the regards to the design of his shoes. (If you remember, one of the criticisms in the immediate aftermath of Rose's injury was that the shoe was partially to blame)
4. The concept of his logo (as seen on top) was that with his family in mind. 3 petals for his brothers. the center represents his mom and looks like a 1.
5. He wants to play for Team USA in the FIBA World Cup.

The adidas D Rose Tour is supported by the official hotel partner, Marriott Hotel, the official hydration partner, Powerade and the venue partners Smart Araneta Coliseum and SM Mall of Asia.

TWTWTNBA: Deconstructing the MVP

Congratulations to Derrick Rose, as he is officially named as the NBA's Most Valuable Player this season. He truly deserved the nod and in fact, was very humbled by it.

Typical of Derrick and his personality, he deflected the prestige of being the best player in the NBA this season, expressing instead his appreciation to Him, his teammates, Bulls management, everyone, and especially his mom Brenda for keeping him in check as he grew up in the South Side.

The Chicago Bulls won 62 games this season under their new head coach Tom Thibodeau, a 21-game improvement over last season. Not surprised that Thibs gets the Coach Of The Year nod.

This is what the 22-yr old Rose averaged this season (h/t to Basketball-Reference):

G	GS	MP	FG	FGA	FG%	3P	3PA	3P%
81	81	37.4	8.8	19.7	.445	1.6	4.8	.332

FT	FTA	FT%	ORB	DRB	TRB	AST	STL	BLK	TOV	PF	PTS
5.9	6.9	.858	1.0	3.1	4.1	7.7	1.0	0.6	3.4	1.7	25.0

If you look at the fact that Boozer played in just 59 games (which one might say is very typical from Carlos) and Noah in only 48, and then take into consideration the huge hole at the other guard position (currently filled by Keith Bogans as the nominal starter while Kyle Korver and Ronnie Brewer alternate), that is a lot of carrying Derrick had to deal with during the whole season, whilst the other teams have had reliable help all year (whether it is the Celtics with their core, the Heat with theirs, Lakers with Kobe and Pau, and the Thunder with Durant and Westbrook). Not just that, the numbers Derrick put up were career highs in almost every single category, both good and bad ones.

Now, let's look at the ballot results: You have to take note that there are 120 voters from the media (composed of sportswriters and broadcasters). Fans also had a say and the NBA gave them a collective vote. That's why you'd might wonder at the excel data below why someone got 121 (Data taken from the NBA's official press release)

2010-11 Kia NBA MVP Award Results

Player, Team	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	Total Points
Derrick Rose, Chicago	113	6	2	--	--	1182 (121)
Dwight Howard, Orlando	3	57	31	16	11	643 (118)
LeBron James, Miami	4	26	39	31	12	522 (112)
Kobe Bryant, L.A. Lakers	1	18	32	40	12	428 (103)
Kevin Durant, Oklahoma City	--	6	10	20	38	190 (74)
Dirk Nowitzki, Dallas	--	5	3	11	30	113 (49)
Dwyane Wade, Miami	--	1	1	2	6	24 (10)
Manu Ginobili, San Antonio	--	2	--	--	6	20 (8)
Amar'e Stoudemire, New York	--	--	1	--	4	9 (5)
Blake Griffin, L.A. Clippers	--	--	1	--	--	5 (1)
Rajon Rondo, Boston	--	--	1	--	--	5 (1)
Tony Parker, San Antonio	--	--	--	1	--	3 (1)
Chris Paul, New Orleans	--	--	--	--	2	2 (2)

I understood the landslide in the first place balloting. The Lebron backlash was not necessarily that atrocious, because he was the guy the second-most 1st-place votes with four, compared to Dwight Howard with 3. Kobe got the other remaining first place vote.

Speaking of Dwight, he was the clear 2nd-best player, he got 57 2nd-place votes. What intrigues me with him is that he had 118 media members voting for him. I wonder who were the two people who left him off their ballots.

I thought Dirk Nowitzki could have gotten more votes that what he received. Ditto for Dwayne Wade, considering the Lebron-Wade dynamic down in South Beach.

For all the sizzle that Amar'e Stoudemire had to kick off the season, that fizzled as he only was in 5 ballots. Also an interesting thing to note, Blake Griffin, Rajon Rondo and Tony Parker each got a vote.

So, a total of 13 players received votes. If we determine the All-NBA teams based on the balloting, I would go out and do it like this.

1st team All-NBA:

Guards: Derrick Rose and Kobe Bryant

Forwards: Lebron James and Kevin Durant

Center: Dwight Howard

2nd team All-NBA:

Guards: Dwyane Wade and Manu Ginobili
Forwards: Dirk Nowitzki and Blake Griffin
Center: Amar'e Stoudemire

3rd team All-NBA:

Guards: Rajon Rondo and Chris Paul (I value Paul's numbers more than Parker's)
Forwards: Lamarcus Aldridge and Kevin Love
Center: Zach Randolph