It goes without saying that the Derrick Rose saga has been one of the more depressing stories of the past few years. He’s missed the better part of three seasons thanks to multiple knee injuries and ensuing surgeries, and it remains to be seen whether he’ll ever return to his former self.
Rose told reporters at shootaround prior to Monday night’s game against the Brooklyn Nets what the process has been like for the past six weeks as he’s worked his way back from yet another knee surgery:
“Hell,” Rose said. “Hell, because you got to do rehab over again. Waking up at 7:30 every day, being there before practice, two hours before practice, beating everybody to the training room. When you arrive to the city, you have damn near two or three workouts every day. So the game, that’s kind of easy for sure.”
The good news for Rose and Chicago Bulls running mate Joakim Noah is that they are both expected to have their minutes restrictions lifted once the playoffs start this weekend. They still have two games remaining this week before then, and they’ll both have implications for their seeding.
Assuming the worst doesn’t happen between now and then, Rose will play his first post-season game since April 28, 2012, when he tore his ACL in Game 1 of a second-round series against the Philadelphia 76ers.
