Derrick Rose likes that there’s a “Derrick Rose rule”

I suppose we should have seen this coming.

Derrick Rose likes having a rule in the new NBA collective bargaining agreement named after him (one that allows players in their first four years who have been named MVP or made a couple All-NBA teams to get paid more than others in the same draft). He also probably will like the extra $3 million a year it brings him.

Rose was back at his old high school gym in Chicago — Simeon Career Academy — working out and getting ready for the season, when Aggrey Sam of CSNChicago.com caught up with him for an exclusive interview. Having a rule named after him was just part of the conversation (but the part you can see in the video above).

Rose was working on his jumper (which he needs) and his post-up game (we’ll see how much that gets used) as he prepares for a Christmas Day opening game against Kobe Bryant and the Lakers. While there are concerns in some quarters about the level of play after the lockout, Rose doesn’t see it that way.

“I think it should be fine, knowing that since the lockout, the people in the league have really good mentors telling them to keep working out, people that’s behind them, people that’s with their team, always keeping them in shape--and I think that people should knock off the rust within a couple of games and we’ll be back at it,” said Rose, who wore an as-of-yet unreleased pair of his sneakers. “‘Booz’ (Carlos Boozer) is coming back in a couple of days, ‘Jo’ (Joakim Noah) is coming back from Hawaii, I think Luol (Deng) just came from Africa.

Rose’s workout was pretty fierce, Sam said of what he saw. And his attitude has to warm the hearts of Bulls fans.

“I take it very serious, very personal. That’s one thing I’m scared of, is failure, so I’m just trying to stay away from it.”