Derrick Rose wasn’t on the court for the final two minutes of Chicago’s 100-93 win over the fellow 7-2 Raptors last night. His hamstring didn’t feel right, which he thinks is probably just a cramp before an MRI scheduled for today. When Bulls teammate Joakim Noah was asked about Rose, he got emotional about his teammate’s journey back to the court after appearing in just 10 games over the previous two seasons and just five of their nine games so far this year.
Rose said after the game, ““It feels like just cramps [in my hamstring]. We have a good team, we had the game we were up 10 by then, so why force it? I overstepped, just stretched out a little bit more with my left leg. I probably got a cramp in it. Just comes with the process of missing two years.”
But after back-to-back knee injuries on both knees, the media won’t abstain from questioning the issue of Rose’s health.
By way of CSNChicago.com, comes Noah’s mini diatribe about all that his teammate has had to overcome while returning from a torn ACL and meniscus tear, and the media’s infatuation with his health:
“Looking at it as a teammate, it’s just frustrating because I feel like he’s sometimes portrayed as something that he’s not,” Noah said. “You don’t come back from the injuries that he’s coming back from without unbelievable commitment, you know what I’m saying?
“I know how much he cares about this game,” Noah continued. “I see it every day. I think we’re all in this together and this is not a one-man team, but at the end of the day, we need him. We need him. I just, I don’t want to see him down. I know sometimes it’s frustrating, you got injuries, you got tweaks. Every time something happens to him, people act like it’s the end of the world. And that’s f— so lame to me. Relax. Like, OK, he’s coming back from two crazy surgeries. Obviously we’re being conservative with him, and when things aren’t going right, he’s got to listen to his body more than anybody. So everybody needs to chill the f— out. I mean, I’m sorry for cursing, but I’m really passionate. I don’t like to see him down. And he doesn’t say that he’s down, but I don’t like it when, like, people portray him and judge him. ‘Cause it’s not fair to him. It’s not.”
Noah is one of the best teammates a player could ask for. He’s tight with Rose — they both share adidas as a sponsor, and we actually played against Noah during the D Rose 5 Boost launch — and he wants the media to leave Derrick alone when it comes to his health.
Rose recently stirred things when he admitted he’s been sitting out games not because he wants to remain fresh for the end of the season, but because he’s thinking about his post-basketball career. But after missing so many games over the last two seasons, and almost half of Chicago’s contests during the inchoate 2014-15 season, it makes sense some would question how sturdy Rose is at this point.
That goes double when D-Rose is gingerly walking on the hardwood and sitting out the last couple minutes of a relatively close contest against an Eastern Conference rival — like he did last night. We get where Noah is coming from, but Joakim has to understand that Rose’s continued convalescence will be the biggest story of the Bulls’ season until he can complete a full regular season schedule — and the playoffs — injury free.
That might not ever happen again, God forbid, but Rose’s injury history forces the majority of media members to lean on the health angle when talking to Rose and his teammates. Derrick’s fragility is the biggest obstacle standing in the way of Chicago’s return to title contention, and Noah knows this, but he still doesn’t have to like it.
Should the media stop freaking out every time Rose gets dinged up?
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