Chicago ? There was a moment, a small moment, in the NCAA Tournament this year that made the people who witnessed it literally gasp. A great, big ooooooohhhhh filled the stadium.

Derrick Rose seemed to come from nowhere for a rebound against Michigan State, and he arrived at the height of his jump so quickly you were left to wonder if some sort of air-speed record hadn’t just fallen. Zero to 48 inches in half a second?

That might not be what you look for in a point guard, but it illustrated a few of the things the Memphis star and Chicago kid has going for him: Incredible power and high entertainment value.

Oh, and he’s unselfish, a great passer and a scorer. Did we mention he can play defense? Yes, that too. And he’s a leader and a winner too. He’s sort of a souped-up Quinn Buckner, high praise indeed.

If the Bulls don’t take this kid, they are absolutely out of their organizational minds.

By some convoluted equation that involved percentages and slide rules and crash-test dummies, the Bulls somehow went from having the ninth-best chance of winning the NBA Draft lottery to actually winning it Tuesday night.

Don’t ask me how.

They were guilty of crimes against basketball last season and by all rights deserved to be stuck with little more than a middling first-round pick. They had a 1.7 percent chance of winning the lottery.

Tuesday night came along, and those Ping-pong balls bounced their way.

See? Crime does pay.

(And new Knicks coach Mike D’Antoni is still happy with his decision to snub the Bulls. Sure you are, Mike.)

So let the debate begin about whether the Bulls should take Rose or Kansas State’s Michael Beasley, but it will be a lot of wasted breath. As talented as Beasley is, a guard of Rose’s ability comes along once every 10 years or so. He’s that good.

Questions about attitude continue to dog Beasley. Start and stop here: He attended six high schools in five states.

If that’s not a red flag, then there is no such thing as a red flag.

The Bulls, beset by turmoil last season, don’t need an injection of more.

Forget the need for a low-post scorer. If last season showed anything, it’s that the Bulls lacked a leader. Maybe Rose doesn’t offer leadership his first season in the NBA, but eventually that leadership will assert itself. Ask Memphis players who was running the show by the end of last season, and if they’re honest, they will tell you it was a freshman from Chicago.

What should the Bulls do about point guard Kirk Hinrich and his large contract? Worry about it later. You do what’s necessary now. You choose Rose because he can right a listing ship.

For all you conspiracy theorists out there, yes, there was a vast plot to get the big-market Bulls the top pick in the draft. Thank you, David Stern, for understanding that Chicago needs to be back on the map for the good of the NBA. And if we forgot to thank the NBA for the Michael Jordan fix, thanks for that too.

Rose isn’t Jordan.

But he might be Chris Paul.