“I was spying on LeBron James”: Derrick Rose admits to having watched the Lakers star closely in their stint together on the Cavaliers

Derrick Rose says that he did indeed spy on LeBron James for the entirety of the 2017-28 season while playing alongside him on the Cavs. 

The Cleveland Cavaliers went into the 2017-18 season with an odd mish-mash of players that were hastily put together by the Cavs front office in light of Kyrie Irving’s departure from ‘the Land’. Players such as Jae Crowder, Derrick rose, Dwyane Wade, and Isaiah Thomas suited up alongside LeBron James to start that season off in an effort to maximize James’s time in Cleveland. 

This didn’t work out however as both Wade and Rose seemed to have become a shell of their former selves and the Cavaliers core imploded before Isaiah Thomas could’ve even stepped foot on the court. LeBron James carried an immense workload that season as this season was eerily familiar to the late 2000s Cavs teams LeBron had to drag out of the mud to a Finals berth.

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‘LeGM’ had the core they had acquired in the offseason traded away by the 2018 trade deadline and acquire talent such as Jordan Clarkson in the process. Though Derrick Rose’s time on the Cavaliers was short-lived, he would go on to admit later on that he picked up a few valuable things from his time there. 

LeBron James was the perfect model for Derrick Rose to look at in terms of taking care of himself. 

After making his way to the Minnesota Timberwolves, Derrick Rose would admit in an interview that he did indeed ‘spy’ on LeBron James during his time on the Cleveland Cavaliers. 

“I was kind of spying on him the entire time while I was there even though he didn’t notice. I was looking at everything that he did. You have to. Looking at the master. So, I took everything in and I think I learned from him.”

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It’s no surprise that Rose felt the now, 4x NBA champ, was the perfect person to look up to when trying to navigate through his injury-prone career. LeBron James has openly admitted to taking the utmost care of his body, spending millions of dollars each year on various therapies that allow him to extend his prime well beyond what was expected. 

It seems as though the secret mentoring sessions paid off quite well as D-Rose would go on to drop a career high 50 points while in Minnesota and go on to be one of the best 6th men in the NBA when on the Detroit Pistons. With him back in New York, the Knicks have been rolling this season, all while cementing themselves as a homecourt advantage team in the East.