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It may have been a sign that preseason was too long or that Derrick Rose still is a kid at heart. But at the end of the last full Bulls practice before the opening of the 2010-11 season Tuesday, Rose considered just how he was going to handle Halloween Sunday.

“My mom or girlfriend is probably going to have to hand out (the candy),” Rose said with a laugh. “If it were up to me, I’d keep it all.”

Rose, as we know, has a notorious sweet tooth and even a Skittles machine in his house compliments of the company after Rose mentioned the snack as a favorite, though Rose did lament that it doesn’t necessarily help him having it in his house.

Rose has a private chef now and has improved his eating habits, which often is overlooked among young players, and he said he’s given up the fast food restaurants that were favorites.

But not the candy. No, never the candy.

“The candy and stuff is hard (for me) to get away from,” Rose conceded. “I’ll be having binges where I eat tons of candy. I’ll go two weeks without eating any and then in one day I’ll go through two pounds.”

That’s right, kids, don’t try this at home unless you, too, are a super athlete and NBA All-Star with a World Championships gold medal.

No chocolate, Rose says, and the sugar by now is no issue as he says he’ll eat a big bag or box of candy right before bed sometimes and be sleeping within seconds.

“Yes, Skittles,” he admitted, adding, “I don’t know why they gave me that (machine). Anything sweet.”

Pixie Stix, someone wondered—yes, Chicago has that hard hitting, Front Page journalistic tradition—to find the worst of the worst bags of basically straight sugar.

Yup, that, too.

“I don’t know why,” Rose said.

Rose was truly blessed with a family who took care and looked out for him being raised in a tough area, and he said it was torture for him not being able to eat his Halloween candy until he got it home so his mother could look through it to determine of it was safe.

So what if he had to go cold turkey, or cold Pez?

“I don’t know what I’d do,” laughed Rose. “I’d probably need therapy or something.”