Amid all the hoopla surrounding teams' recruiting pitches to the most heralded free agent class in NBA history this summer, the Chicago Bulls' Derrick Rose took a low-key approach in his wooing of LeBron James.
Rose sent James a text, the contents of which to this point were unknown. In a Sports Illustrated article out this week, Rose remembers the message reading: "I'm just hitting you up to kill all the rumors that I don't want to play with you. I'd like to play with you. I just want to win."
Of course, a few days later James joined Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh in Miami. The decision surprised Rose, who said James coming to Chicago seemed like a "no-brainer."
But Rose and the Bulls quickly moved on, netting free agents Carlos Boozer, Ronnie Brewer, Kyle Korver, C.J. Watson, Kurt Thomas and Keith Bogans.
"He always told me he didn't want to be on one of those stacked teams," Rose's brother Reggie told the magazine. "He wanted to be with an underdog."
The Bulls trail James' Heat by a game for the second seed in the Eastern Conference, and Rose is considered a front-runner -- along with James -- for league MVP.
