It was Saturday, April 28, 2012 when the city of Chicago froze. With 1:22 left in Game 1 of the NBA Playoffs against the Philadelphia 76ers, the whole city held their breath. And after Derrick Rose tore his ACL in that moment, as the city now anxiously awaits his return, some fans still haven't exhaled.
At the beginning of this NBA season, Adidas (the company who signed Rose, hoping to ride the Bulls superstar to success, the same way Nike did with his predecessor) released a commercial that vaguely profile the injury and Rose's efforts at a return to the court. The commercial ended with a simple tagline "all in for d rose," as if to say "let's cheer for this guy to make it back, cause we love him and we need him." In addition, Adidas made an attempt to trend a Twitter hash-tag (define hash-tag here for out-of-date readers) that simply read, #thereturn. What an awesome commercial it was - in fact, even today when I watch it, I get goosebumps from the emotional response that the TV spot invokes; compassion, inspiration, determination, heroism, nostalgia.
Now, before I begin my inevitable criticism of Derrick, let me preface by saying what a great player he has been up to this point. I have to admit first though, never shy to criticize professional athletes off the court, I did lose a chunk of respect for Rose when news came out about his invalid SAT score, followed by the NCAA vacating his only college season. That said, his offense didn't effect many lives, and he responded to it in the best way; with humility. Derrick Rose's NBA career has been many things, but his humility is near the top of that list. Never one to "talk smack" in the press or draw attention to himself, D-Rose simply goes about his business day after day on the court, and did so to the tune of an MVP award at the age of 22, the youngest player to do so in league history. Oh yea, Derrick is the only other Bull to win the award besides a guy with the initials of MJ...pretty good company to keep. He is a grinder, who works tirelessly to guide his team to a competitive season every year - not just by scoring tons of points, but by effectively facilitating a fluid offense and by being a tenacious defender.
So there is all my love for D-Rose, and now for my acknowledgement of judgment, before I make my case against him. Like anything we experience in life, each and every human in the world reacts in their own way to different situations, and nobody is to blame for that. What is easy for one person is hard for another, and vice versa. What is scary/painful/upsetting for one person can be funny/inspiring/motivating for another. I often try not to judge other people for their personal responses to the stimuli of life, as I know that I respond in my own way for my own reasons as well.
Despite all that, I am judging Derrick Rose. It appears that ACL recovery time-frames vary from person to person, but they can take as quick as 6 months, and sometimes as long as a full year...both time-frames have passed in Rose's case. In fact, he was cleared for basketball activity by team doctors in mid-February. Since then, he has practiced full-strength with the team for a while now, but still no word on a return to live action. Recently, with the Bulls facing several other team injuries in the playoffs, speculation has intensified as to if and when a now healthy Rose will return to help his team out. Rose has been quoted as citing muscle memory and mental preparation as the reasons he is only "90 percent." And more than anything, Rose's brother, Reggie, has used the situation to draw attention to himself by occasionally "releasing updates" about D-Rose's status (all updates have proven inconsequential, but now people know Reggie's name, which is probably all he wanted).
Ok, ok, most of you probably know this whole saga already, so what's my beef? My beef is that, we see this situation all the time in different venues of life. Different individuals blow up situations in their lives to be these monumental difficulties or obstacles, and it then becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy that has tripled in size from the actual issue. It's like jumping in a cold pool - you think, debate, and hesitate until jumping in the pool has become such a burden that it's not even about the temperature anymore, it's just about convincing yourself to answer the bell. Charles Swindoll has famously said, "life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it," and quite frankly, he couldn't be more correct.
Don't get me wrong - I think what the Nationals did with Stephen Strasburg was right, and that the chances the Redskins took with Robert Griffin were wrong. Please let me be clear, I don't want to downplay the importance of proper discretion toward physical injuries. In light of that, Derrick Rose has said himself, that this is not a physical issue, he is 100% physically healed, and so my critique is of his attitude, more than anything else.
Are the Bulls turning heads without D-Rose on the court? Sure they are, they just beat the Miami Heat last night with Rose, Kirk Hinrich, and Luol Deng on the bench, but any team could always use a former MVP for a boost. The Bulls have been fighting off injuries, and have done so well, staying alive in a 7-game first round battle with the Brooklyn Nets, and now only needing to win half of their next 6 games against the Heat in order to advance to the Eastern Conference Finals. My argument is that the timing could not be better for "the return" to happen, than right now. As sports fans, we often times (if not all the time), dramatize situations to play out like a movie in our minds. Who can blame us? That's why we're sports fans (short for fanatics). Most times we hope for the buzzer-beater, dramatic comeback, walk-off homerun, but those situations aren't always realistic. What I say in this situation is that the only thing making "the return" unrealistic is D-Rose's attitude. Stop focusing on what could go wrong if you come back, and focus on what could go right. If I looked at the stats about why I shouldn't drive on an American highway because it could be fatal, then I would never get in a car. What usually makes life worth living is that it takes sacrifice, determination, and facing our fears, to achieve the greatest intrinsic rewards.
At the end of the second Batman movie, The Dark Knight, Batman has a line he delivers, "Sometimes the truth isn't good enough. Sometimes people deserve more. Sometimes, people deserve to have their faith rewarded." Couldn't be more true for D-Rose in this moment. It doesn't matter why he doesn't feel confident enough, he just needs to trust himself, and more importantly, the fan base who has been patiently waiting for "the return" to not just be a tagline but a reality, deserves more than an explanation - they deserve to be rewarded.
Friday, May 10, 2013 @ 7:00pm is Game 3 against the Heat, and the first one of the series to be played in Chicago at the United Center. I think it should be the first one D-Rose plays in, after a 377-day drought where his team has held it together long enough and could use their leader now more than ever. From a generation that watched Jordan play through the flu in the NBA Finals two decades ago, I think D-Rose can find a way to play through his mental demons. Ultimately, what I am trying to say here, if I'm saying anything, is - Adidas asked us to support "the return" and be "all in for d rose," well the Bulls have shown that they're all in, the Chicago faithful are all in, and general sports fans like myself are all in...the only person left is Derrick, to who I say, we're all in, where are you?
#thereturn
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