I Don’t Care That Derrick Rose Is Injured Again

I was absent-mindedly scrolling through my Twitter feed late on Tuesday night when a massive sense of deja vu hit me. This was different though, because whereas deja vu is where you kind of think that the thing you are experiencing has happened to you before, I knew for sure that what I was seeing had occurred before.

You see, staring back at me was the news that Chicago Bulls point guard and franchise player (can we still call him that?) Derrick Rose had suffered yet another injury. This time it was a fracture of the orbital bone near his left eye.

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I had to laugh because it was the exact same way that I had found out about the meniscus tear in his right knee that ruled him out of action for a portion of last season as well. Twitter can be great like that. However, while it was nice to note that this was not another knee injury and not a long term layoff for Rose, I definitely felt differently about the entire ordeal this time round.

That was where the deja vu ended. You see this time, I didn’t really care at all.

Don’t think that I’m a heartless individual, though. I’ve wanted Rose to succeed for the longest time, and when he was crowned the league’s youngest-ever MVP, I felt pretty confident he’d go on to win at least one championship. Back then he played like a more toned-down Russell Westbrook with elements of Chris Paul‘s awareness on the floor thrown in for good measure.

Like Westbrook he could puncture the opposition with an emphatic dunk, only he didn’t break those moves out so often, unlike the Oklahoma City Thunder floor general.

Throughout that first long injury layoff in 2012 that begun this downward spiral, a result of a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee, I bought into the hype surrounding his return. Adidas marketed that particular moment in his career excellently, and I couldn’t wait until he was back on the court again.

Did I find it a little odd that he chose to hold himself out of some games towards the end of that season, despite being medically cleared and with his teammates in a tussle for playoff positioning?

Sure, but I understood his logic. Let me rehab fully now, and we’ll really reap the benefits in the near future. Only that never quite happened, and from there Rose’s public persona began to sour.

I still didn’t mind though, I watched the ‘Why not? Why can’t I be the MVP of the league?’ speech far too many times, and felt Rose had been harshly treated by members of the media, as well as the Bulls themselves.

With Rose I finally got what it meant to see a player have their career ravaged by injuries, and it hurt. I used to always hear people say that the likes of Grant Hill or Anfernee Hardaway could have been all-time greats if not for injury. I understood what they were saying and I believed them, it was just hard to care emotionally as it was before my time.

I’d seen them before and after injury, but I didn’t get that feeling of disappointment that other fans who lived through those injuries often showed when they spoke about those players.

That all changed with Rose, though. I knew who he was when he was playing for Simeon Career Academy and I knew what it meant to both player and team when he was drafted by his hometown Bulls. So to see so much of his prime taken away because of injury gave me that uneasy feeling inside that life was not fair.

Sport is supposed to distract you from the harsh realities of life and then something like this comes along to remind you things don’t always go the way they should.

During last year’s playoffs, I was thrilled to see Rose knocking down a buzzer-beater against the Cleveland Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference semifinals. It was also great to see he had legitimate help in his quest to win a ring in the form of Pau Gasol and Jimmy Butler.

I’m not a Bulls fan, but going into this year I felt they were arguably the most intriguing team in the East (along with the Miami Heat) and I was rooting for Rose.

Then came his comments at Chicago’s first media availability the day before he went down injured, and finally I turned my back on the guy. It was kind of amazing really. Apparently keeping himself out of games is one thing. Potential off-court issues are another that I won’t go into here.

Saying last year he’d rather miss some game time so he can walk properly when he’s retired is something else altogether, and an issue that many fans weren’t happy about given how much he’s been paid both by the Bulls and Adidas.

But the straw that finally broke this camel’s back was the unprompted statement that he’s looking forward to free agency in 2017, when he can make some big money to look after his family financially.

The money wasn’t for him he claimed, but rather his son P.J. To date, Rose has earned roughly $75 million from the Bulls, with a whopping $41 million to come over the final two years of his deal.

To put that in a little bit of context, when the Golden State Warriors signed Stephen Curry to a contract extension in 2013, they gave him four years at $44 million. Given his ankle issues at the time, this seemed fair for both parties. Curry made $11 million from his team last year, all while winning the regular season MVP award and leading his team to a championship.

Rose’s 13-year deal with adidas is rumored to pay him up to $185 million as well. That’s a lot of money for shoes he doesn’t spend half as much time as he should in.

Look, if this was a likeable role player coming off injury talking about how they’d like to have one more big payday before retiring this wouldn’t be an issue. Similarly if a veteran player or typically underpaid guy suddenly piped up about being excited to come into some big money two years down the road, we’d say more power to them and not give it a second thought.

But the timing is all wrong here, and that was even before this latest injury setback.

Financially Rose is set for life, and while documentaries such as ESPN’s excellent “Broke” have shown us that star athletes are capable of wasting massive sums, Rose truly is one of the highest earners in the league as a result of basic salary and endorsements.

So to make comments about money when the vast majority of fans in Chicago have stuck with him as he spent more time in the recovery room than on the court, well that stung.

Even if Rose feels that way, he absolutely should have kept those feelings to himself, and given the usual generic answers to the same old questions. Should his focus be on winning right now?

In theory yes, but even if he values personal wealth over winning a title, saying so before the season has even begun with 2017 in mind speaks more about the individual Rose really is, and not the one Adidas would have you believe he is.

I wish Derrick Rose nothing but good health from here on out in his career. It’s not likely to happen, but despite the things he’s said as a basketball fan it would be foolish to root against him. When he’s fully fit he brings so much to the game I love watching.

It’s just that I’m no longer emotionally invested in him, nor will I do a double take the next time my Twitter feed is suddenly awash with breaking news on his next injury. For the next generation of fans he’ll be a cautionary tale and nothing more. For me, well he’s not even that anymore, and I wish I didn’t feel like this about one of the most talented players in the NBA when healthy.

Instead, I feel nothing.

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