When Rundles met Rose

“Just read the craziest article I’ve ever read in my entire life…. When I was in 8th grade I played against Derrick Rose and had 38 against..”

“..Him, I stopped telling that story cause nobody believed me, but I was reading an interview he wrote and he mentioned me… Check it out!!”

“http://www.slamonline.com/online/kicks/2009/08/kicks-12-on-sale-now/”

“Craziest article I’ve ever read in my life! Hands down, never would have thought he would remember, but he didn’t even know my name hahaha”

That’s the Twitter time line (@killaC34) of the Jelson Homes DMU Leicester Riders starting point guard, Cameron Rundles. It comes shortly after he’s alerted to an online article on the hugely respected Slamonline Kicks site whereby the reigning NBA MVP, Derrick Rose, is interviewed in ’09 and is asked the following:

KICKS: Who were the toughest guys you went against?

ROSE: Everybody. Oh, growing up? You’re talking like in high school? AAU? Something like that?

KICKS: Yeah, high school, AAU, even playground.

ROSE: Who was the toughest player? Man, the only person that really served me, like really really served me, I don’t even know this boy name. I just know he go to Montana. He probably a senior this year, he probably a senior, and I was young and playin’ up, that’s what you’re supposed to do. It was some boy, he was from Minnesota, he played for a Minnesota team, they came into Chicago, and I was playin’ up. And he served me, I can’t lie.

KICKS: He was another point guard?

ROSE: He had to be a two guard the way he was shootin’. I wanted to check the best player on the floor, so I was checkin’ him. It seemed he wasn’t missin’. He had to have 30-somethin’, 40 points or something like that. I don’t know his name, but I know he goes to Montana.

Don’t believe Rundles was the guy to take it to Rose? Think again (quotes courtesy of www.leicesterriders.co.uk):

“I was in eighth grade and he was in seventh grade, so he was playing up. He was playing with the Ferraris in Chicago and I was playing with a team, it wasn’t a big AAU team. I was on a local team that I’d been playing with my whole life. We were called the Eastsiders,

“We were in a championship game…so I’m like ‘Cool, I always guard the best player’. So I guarded him, he was guarding me. It was a packed house like a championship game,

“In the last seven, eight minutes it was just kinda me against him. I was coming down scoring and he was coming down scoring. I hit like seven or eight threes and he was just taking me to the rack. He was quick like he is, he was tough. Then at the end, we end up winning. It was in his home town..he played well though..but everybody was coming up to me like ‘You just went up against one of the best players in Chicago’ all this stuff.”

Rundles is “1000% sure” that he was the guard who ‘served’ the Chicago Bulls saviour going on to say that:

“I’ve been telling people my whole life. In high school I didn’t really tell anybody. But then he (Rose) made it to the NBA and he was Rookie of the year and I’m in college and I’m telling people about it,

“Some people might think I’m lying. I stopped telling the story but I never forgot. I never forgot it.”

Tonight’s road game against the Mersey Tigers will be the perfect opportunity for the Leicester Riders top scorer to show the onlookers what Derrick Rose already knows… that Cameron Rundles is the real deal.”