By now you’ve seen official photos of the Rose 3, Derrick Rose’s latest signature shoe from adidas. I’ll get to the logo, the shoe and the apparel soon, but let me just put things into perspective. We know Derrick Rose for a lot of things– high school phenom, college standout, no.1 overall pick, ROY, 2-time All-Star, Team USA member, and League MVP. Great ball player? Most Definitely. Team Leader and character guy? For sure. But there’s more to him than this.

Over the 30+ minute session, Derrick Rose talks about his mom, his brothers, his family/friends, and how a kid from the South Side of Chicago made it. I’ve been around Rose and team Rose- the adidas design and marketing team (both local and int’l)- and whenever they talk about Rose and his line, it’s all this– all about Chicago, his hometown, and his family. Wow.

Ok. This can always be considered talking/key points from adidas, to make him a lot more personable and relatable. Anybody can coach Rose into talking about this. But this is legit. This is who DRose is. The shoe, the logo, the apparel, it’s all about him and where he’s from. Robotic, in a way, kind of like how Tim Duncan is.

Then it happened.

They showed the trailer of #thereturn and he broke down. The whole injury/recovery period’s been painful to Rose and you can see him really want to make his family and his city proud. He inspires millions of fans,  and you see him break down because he’s that appreciative? How can you not pull for someone like DRose? I’ve respected Rose as a player, but what happened during the presser now made him my favorite player. Can’t wait for the dude to come back quicker, stronger, better than ever.

The Rose 3 drops October 4. More on the Rose 3 line in a couple of days. Right now, do check out photos and the presser below.

Yup, that’s DRose during All-Star Weekend wearing the hoodie (when he wasn’t supposed to, but he liked it so much he decided to wear it just the same). And yes, that’s a BTV mic slot, and the small nub of hair is Riki Flores (@rikiflo).