Derrick Rose tutored the top teens in China on a basketball teaching tour with Dwight Howard. He shot a video game commercial with Kobe Bryant, too, so there really were some fun moments during the offseason no matter how bad it looked at times.

That photo of him flashing gang signs wasn't one of his finest moments. That scandal at Memphis was another blow to his reputation, even if he insisted several times he did nothing wrong.

On the eve of the Chicago Bulls' training camp in Deerfield, Ill., Rose did it again. The star point guard reiterated that he took the SAT exam to get into Memphis and dismissed the idea that someone did so in his place.

"I took it, I took it," Rose said yesterday.

The NBA's Rookie of the Year last season, Rose found himself at the center of a scandal over the summer when the NCAA ruled that Memphis must vacate its 38 wins and national championship game appearance during the 2007-08 season for using an ineligible player. The school is appealing the ruling.

The NCAA said an unknown person took the SAT for a player — with his knowledge — and that the player used it to get admitted. The governing body said the athlete played for the Tigers only during the 2007-08 season and the 2008 NCAA tournament. Rose is the only person who fits that description, but he insisted no one took the test for him.

"That's for sure," he said.

A former No. 1 draft pick, Rose has emerged as one of the league's top young players and helped his hometown team get back to the playoffs after missing the postseason the previous year.

NETS

NEW OWNER WILL MOVE FRANCHISE TO BROOKLYN

The New Jersey Nets are moving to a new arena in Brooklyn, and Bruce Ratner believes the remaining obstacles won't be a problem.

Ratner, the Nets principal owner, confidently predicted in a telephone interview yesterday with The Associated Press that a blockbuster deal that includes selling the team to Russian tycoon Mikhail Prokhorov was the final piece to building an $800 million arena and moving the team to the New York City borough.

Ratner sees no problem in selling almost $600 million in tax-exempt bonds by a Dec. 31 deadline and he does not believe a pending legal challenge to the state's use of eminent domain to assemble land for the arena will succeed.

He predicted ground will be broken on the new Barclay's Center by the end of the year.

"I feel very good, actually totally different," Ratner said. "I feel really good."

Months ago, experts had doubts that the cash-strapped Forest City Ratner Cos. and Nets Sports and Entertainment would be able to get Ratner's $4.9 billion Atlantic Yards Project off the ground with the economy faltering.

In need of financing, Ratner started considering partnerships as early as last year and had Goldman Sachs start to look at potential investors seriously this summer.

Along came Prokhorov. The 44-year-old jet-setting playboy wanted to bring the knowledge of the NBA to his homeland while getting a piece of a team.

According to the agreement, entities formed by Prokhorov's group will invest $200 million and make funding commitments to acquire 80 percent of the NBA team, 45 percent of the arena project and the right to buy up to 20 percent of the Atlantic Yards Development Co., which will develop the nonarena real estate.

ELSEWHERE

Raptors: Toronto forward Chris Bosh is expected to miss the start of training camp because of a strained left hamstring.

The four-time All-Star first felt soreness during a training session at home in Dallas last week. The pain returned during a workout in Toronto on Wednesday.

Pacers: Indiana has signed coach Jim O'Brien through the 2010-11 season.

O'Brien initially signed a three-year deal in 2007, with an option for a fourth year.

The Pacers have missed the playoffs in the first two years of O'Brien's tenure.