It was a Wednesday night in Madison Square Garden and the New York Knicks were getting ready to play the New Orleans Pelicans. But something was missing. Something very important. What? THE STARTING POINT GUARD!

Yep, to everyone’s dismay Derrick Rose, the Knicks starting PG had gone AWOL. He was at the morning shoot around, but just before tip-off, no one knew where he was. No call, no text, not even his agent knew his whereabouts.

As it turns out, Rose jumped on a flight to his hometown, Chicago, IL, to tend to what is being called a “family emergency.”  So what type of family emergency prevents one from calling his employer to notify them that they can’t come to work?  This is just too weird if you ask me.

Not only did he leave without any type of notification, but when people called his cell phone to find out where he was, he wouldn’t answer. Then when he came back, he talked about retiring or taking a sabatical from basketball. Something’s obviously wrong in Mr. Rose’s world.

But here’s the kicker. When he returned to the Knicks, there were NO CONSEQUENCES!  He was simply inserted into the starting lineup of the next game as though nothing happened. This might explain why the Knicks organization is in somewhat of a shambles.

With most employers you can’t just have a no call, no show and expect things to be business as usual when you return, other people are depending on you like your teammates, coaching staff, and the fans paid good money to see you perform.

Now obviously if this were something serious and personal, it’s not going to be made known to the public, but yet and still, there has to be some kind is consequence and repercussion because of how it was handled. He was fined a significant amount, but I feel he should have received at least a 1-game suspension.

So Rose will be an unrestricted free agent this summer and is looking for a big payday. But if I’m the Knicks front office I don’t know if I’d be willing to sign him to a max deal. This guy has become a head case.

Since the knee injury during his MVP season, he hasn’t been the same player. He hasn’t been able to play a full season, the explosion to the basket is most times absent, and he’s recently talked about retirement. He is a fabulous talent, but is he really interested in being the superstar he was on his way to becoming just 5 short years ago?

He’s obviously a player that any team in the league would love to have, but do you offer max money to a guy who’s subject to disappear at a moments notice?  Who makes Latrell Sprewell like statements of having to feed his family? And who’s heart has been questioned after missing an entire season after the ACL injury?

New York has been a franchise known for saddling itself with bad contracts. Don’t fall for the banana in the tail pipe again. BE SMART!