Feb. 27--Jeremiah Matthews peaked his head out of the visitors' locker room at Lemont the first week of February and came up with an idea to throw off the strangest-looking crowd he'd ever seen.
"They were all dressed up like Derrick Rose," said Matthews, a Crete-Monee senior. "Some people had crutches. Some people had a face mask on. And they were doing this whole scene, crying like they hurt their leg.
"So I told Rose we should switch our T-shirts we wear during warmups so mine says 'Rose' on the back and they wouldn't know. But he wanted to go out there and shut the crowd up. And he did."
Dwayne Rose Jr. is establishing himself as a basketball player in the spotlight of his famous uncle's shadow.
The Crete-Monee junior has taken it in with the kind of stoicism that would -- and does -- make Derrick Rose proud.
"If anything," Derrick Rose said, "he's even quieter than me, which is kind of crazy."
While Dwayne Rose Jr. will be hard-pressed to win two state championships, the NBA's Rookie of the Year and MVP awards by the time he's 22, he has shown signs of becoming an elite player this season while averaging 14 points and nearly two steals per game for the Warriors (17-8 entering Friday).
"He has had flashes, without a doubt," Crete-Monee coach Tom Cappel said. "He's scored over 20 points in several games, has made some real jaw-dropping plays."
"My uncle told me, 'Stay humble, keep working and good things will happen,'" Dwayne Rose Jr. said. "I just try to play. I try not to worry about my name. Of course it pops up a lot. I just continue to play my game."
Rising Rose
The Roses are a famously tight-knit family.
It's common Chicago knowledge that Derrick Rose's three older brothers protected, guided, nurtured his prodigious talent from a young age.
The eldest, Dwayne, graduated from Hubbard 16 years before Rose did so at Simeon, which means Derrick Rose is six years closer in age to Dwayne's son than he is to Dwayne.
"We are super close," Derrick Rose said in a telephone interview Friday morning from Atlanta, where the Bulls were preparing to take on the Hawks.
"My family is close. I treat him like he's my kid. We are 10 years apart. I was able to be around him as kid. It is more like a parent thing than an uncle thing."
Rose did the uncle-parent thing for three weeks this summer, training with Dwayne Jr. in California.
"That was a good experience for him," Dwayne Rose Sr. said. "I think that helped him prepare for this season."
"He is developing pretty good," Derrick Rose said. "I always tell him to keep working hard and I let him know that basketball isn't everything. If he chooses another direction, he has the choice to. As long as he is happy, everyone in my family is happy. He is a great kid. He knows he will always be taken care of."
Big shoes to fill
Quietly following Derrick Rose out to California was one thing. Following him at Beasley Elementary School was another.
That's where the legend began, where fans would flock to games in the early 2000s for a glimpse of the next big thing.
Every kid who plays basketball at Beasley probably dreams of being the next Derrick Rose, but only one was related to him.
"We've been out here (in the Crete-Monee district) for seven or eight years," Dwayne Sr. said. "It was nice to get him out of there and let him just play. I always said, 'Let your game speak for itself.'
"It's good that his game is what got him noticed, then his name came out. It was his game, proving he can play."
Producing at a consistently high level is the final piece to Dwayne Jr.'s becoming a star on the high school level.
His build is similar to Derrick's, 6-foot-2 with a strong physique, and his strengths are too -- explosion off the dribble, speed in the open court, vision and a mid-range jumper.
He had a particularly good stretch in January, averaging 22.3 points and 6.7 assists in three straight wins against good teams.
"He is on a team with four seniors in the starting lineup, and he is the junior," Dwayne Rose Sr. said. "I think he is trying not to step on toes. They are good players. He is feeling his way, playing his role. When he's needed to take over, he does what he needs to do."
Rose will get a lot of looks on the AAU circuit this summer, both for his game and his name, with the Adidas-sponsored, family-run Team Rose.
He already has one Division I scholarship offer, from UIC, with the opportunity to receive more during the summer.
"It was big for him, showing him the hard work does pay off," said Dwayne Sr., who coached his son's AAU teams and frequently works with him after practice. "It's just a matter of putting it all together. I think it's coming."
'Fun and games'
The good thing about having a teammate who's close with an uncle who has NBA-superstar resources is the shoes and warmups and uniforms and other stuff you get from Adidas.
"We are thankful for Team Rose and everything they gave us," Matthews said. "They gave us so much stuff. We've been set up real nice."
The great thing about having a teammate who's close with an uncle who has NBA superstar resources is that, in this case anyway, there isn't any downside.
"He will do whatever you want," Cappel said. "He is a good kid."
Dwayne Jr. doesn't carry himself like he's Derrick Rose, doesn't try to bring attention to himself.
When it happens, like at Lemont, "it was pretty funny," Matthews said.
"It was actually funny," Dwayne Rose Jr. said.
"Hilarious," Dwayne Rose Sr. said.
"I didn't hear about that," Derrick Rose said. "That stuff is all fun and games."
The Bulls point guard gets frequent updates on Crete-Monee basketball, but will not come to a game because he doesn't want to "bring that attention to the games.
"He is young. I will have the chance to see him. I know I'm going to see him play somewhere down the line."
Mike Helfgot is a freelance reporter for the Chicago Tribune.
