Blogs.Bulls.com

Taj Gibson won’t have to worry. Derrick Rose isn’t going to dunk on him in the All-Star weekend’s Rookie Challenge.

That’s because Rose won’t be there.

Oh, he’ll be at All-Star weekend, and proudly on the stand when they introduce the 2010 NBA All-Stars Sunday Feb. 14 in the Dallas Cowboys’ stadium before what is expected to be the biggest crowd ever for an NBA basketball game.

But Rose got a pass from the NBA to miss the rookie/sophomore game because he was to compete in events every day with the Skills Challenge Saturday. The NBA could not find any record of a player ever being asked to compete in events each day.

The league decided it would be unfair to Rose and the Bulls to ask him to do so much, so Rose will be excused from the rookie/sophomore game, which also features teammate Taj Gibson.

The NBA had not yet named a substitute for Rose as of Tuesday morning.

The Bulls and Rose were concerned about the effect having to participate in the events every day would have in the middle of the season with the Bulls in the playoff push and Rose the team’s leading scorer.

Ordinarily, players cannot back out of an All-Star game or the rookie/sophomore game unless they are injured. It’s a league rule that if selected you must participate. But league officials in researching whether anyone ever competed in all three major events with Rose the defending champion in the Skills Challenge, found it was unprecedented and, thus, it would be unfair to demand it of Rose.