Bulls chairman Jerry Reinsdorf says he will be very careful bringing Derrick Rose back from injury – NBA News
Chicago Bulls chairman Jerry Reinsdorf has said that he will not jeopardize the future of his franchise player Derrick Rose by hurrying his return to the NBA court after the former MVP was sidelined with an ACL injury at the end
of last season.
Derrick Rose, point guard and franchise player of the Bulls, suffered a torn ACL in his left knee during game 1 of the first round playoff series against the Philadelphia 76ers last season. Rose underwent surgery on May 12th
and is expected to miss 8 to 12 months of action as he recovers from his injury.
"I'm not going to let him back until the doctors tell me that it's absolutely safe for him to come back," said Reinsdorf while making an appearance on ESPN 1000’s “talking baseball” show on Saturday.
Reinsdorf further said that he made the mistake of hurrying back his star player once before with Michael Jordan during the 1985-86 NBA season. Jordan broke a bone in his left foot during that season and was sidelined for months.
He ended up missing 64 regular season games for that season, but returned for the final 15 games. He helped his team qualify for the playoffs that season but Reinsdorf admits that Jordan was hurried back then. It worked out well for the Bulls but it could
have gone the other way and he is in no mood of repeating the same mistake with the new franchise player for the Bulls, Derrick Rose.
Rose is said to be making good progress in his rehabilitation from injury, and his brother and agent Reggie Rose recently told ESPN Chicago that he is now walking without a brace. Reinsdorf also said that he has been told by doctors
that Rose is ahead of schedule as far as his recovery plan in concerned.
The Chicago Bulls went through a major roster overhaul this summer, with Kyle Korver, Omer Asik, C.J. Watson and Ronnie Brewer all members of different teams now. The Bulls lost many members of the “bench mob” from last season,
but added Kirk Hinrich, Marco Belinelli, Vladimir Radmanovic and Nazr Mohammed in their place. In addition, the Bulls also have rookie Marquis Teague joining them next season.
"We still have Joakim (Noah) and Luol (Deng) and Taj (Gibson) and Carlos (Boozer). I think we're going to be a pretty decent team without Derrick. Will we win a championship? I doubt that very seriously, but if we can hang in there
and get to the playoffs and if Derrick comes back, who knows? We might be there at the end," added Reinsdorf.
The Chicago Bulls finished with the best record in the league in the 2010-2011 season, and tied for the best record in the league in the 2011-2012 season before being eliminated in the first round of the playoffs by 8th
seeded Philadelphia 76ers after they lost Rose to the ACL injury.
Tags: