Greg Oden qualifies as a rookie this year, a situation that seemed highly problematic for Derrick Rose and Michael Beasley (and anyone else looking to make a name for themselves as a budding young superstar) in any sort of quest to win a ROY award.

But then opening night happened. And Oden hurt his foot and never showed back up to the gym. And Rose didn’t get hurt and he started. And he started good.

“Good” meaning some sort of tune that sounded like 11 points, nine assists, four boards and three steals in 32 minutes. Additionally, the Bulls, as you may have noticed, played the Milwaukee Bucks. The same Bucks who are coached by former Chi-town managerial hard-ass Scott Skiles.

Skiles left Chicago under less than spectacular circumstances, having failed in an effort to do anything positive with all the young talent. (Seriously, it can’t be overstated how badly he screwed up with some of the youngsters.) So getting to see Tyrus Thomas, Rose and Joakim Noah dominate the coach that previously made headbands illegal and squelched the general athleticism of what should have been an exciting team was nice.

So, yeah, no more of that business. Now it’s just time for D-Rose to start getting loose and working on locking up some hardware.