“Break Your Will”: Echoing Floyd Mayweather’s Thoughts, Derrick Rose Opens Up on His Approach to Tough Matchups

One of the biggest “what-ifs” in NBA history was how Derrick Rose’s career would have unfolded had it not been for his gruesome knee injury. He continued to play in the NBA for a decade after going down, but never quite reached the same heights again. Still, Rose had a unique mentality and approach that made him a former MVP, and also grinded out at the highest level of basketball until his retirement in 2014. And for that, he has Floyd Mayweather to thank.

Rose recently appeared on the Numbers on the Board podcast, where he was asked about how he dealt with the difficult opponents in the league during his prime years. He revealed that in his eyes, there was a target painted on the backs of everyone, and went on to reveal the ‘Floyd effect’.

He spoke about how Mayweather’s greatness was defined by him actually being afraid of getting knocked out. That’s why Mayweather, one of the greatest boxers of all time, would protect himself better and differently from anybody else. And Rose, during his playing days, found himself feeling the same way every time he laced up his boots.

“I kind of felt the same thing when I stepped on the court,” Rose said. “I competed in a way where I wanted to break your will while we played. And I didn’t have to say it, you could just tell it by the way I played or, like the matchups. If you played well against me for one night, you know I’m playing extremely hard the next night.” 

Rose, who has now left the NBA life behind him, gives his children the same advice he lived by. He wants them to commit 100 percent to whatever it is they choose to do. “The game will reward you,” he insisted. “And not only that, people can see it. You can’t fake the hustle or fake the grind.”

During the first half of his Chicago Bulls stint, Rose was arguably one of the most difficult players to guard in the league, if not the most difficult. He was fast, explosive, and lethal at the rim, constantly leaving defenders across the NBA bamboozled. Mentally, too, he kept trying to “break your will” every time out, as he admitted in the same interview.

“I didn’t shy away from any matchups,” he continued. “We was just going to see who going to get the best of each other that night, and this was going to lead to an every-year thing, where I was going to try to destroy you every year.”

The more we learn about the type of man D-Rose was, the more we lament how injuries cut his time at the top short. He never came close to reaching his MVP levels again after his devastating knee blow in 2012, and went on to play for New York, Minnesota, and Memphis in the years that followed before calling it quits at just 35 years old.