So What If Derrick Rose Did Cheat?

It's not his fault he had to go to college

So Thursday has probably not been the greatest day in the life of Derrick Rose.  Since Wednesday night he's been implicated in a report that a Memphis basketball player had somebody take his SAT for him to get into the school, and now the latest report that Rose had a grade changed on his transcript from Simeon High School.

In his article on it earlier, NBCCHICAGO.com's Eamonn Brennan asked what these allegations, if they do turn out to be true and Rose is the player in question, will do to his image.  Some people may think less of the humble young leader, and others might not care at all.

You shouldn't care.

Even if Rose did cheat on his SAT to get into college it shouldn't matter.  It's not ethically sound to cheat, but who hasn't cheated in school?  The fact of the matter is that Rose did what he had to do to get into college so he could pursue his career.  Some kids go to college so they can become a doctor or a lawyer, and some go to be athletes.   The only reason Rose even went to college is because the NBA requires that high schoolers wait a year after graduating before entering the NBA.

So if Rose was only going to Memphis for one year before he left for the NBA, then why should anybody care how he did in English class?  If he doesn't want to get his degree, he probably shouldn't even have to go to class.  All any of these student athletes are for the schools they attend and the NCAA are a source of income.  That's it.

Granted, there are plenty of student athletes who are only using their athletic talents to get themselves a free education, and more power to them.  That's why they're in school.  For Rose he was only there because he had to be.

Maybe he's not book smart enough to get into school, and if he's not, there's nothing wrong with that.  He's known since he was a youngster that basketball was his best bet to make money and support his family, so from a young age that's what his life centered around.   There's more value in knowing how to break a 2-3 zone defense for Rose than knowing what the Magna Carta accomplished.

At the end of the day all Derrick Rose did was whatever he had to do to accomplish his goal of reaching the NBA.  We shouldn't fault him for it.

Along with writing for NBCCHICAGO.com, Tom Fornelli can also be found contributing at FanHouse, SPORTSbyBROOKS, and his own Chicago sports blog Foul Balls.

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