Off the Court
To compound the misery of major offensive and defensive regressions, life away from the court has not been remotely easy or straight forward for Rose in recent years.
We’ve already alluded to Rose’s injury history, but let’s break it down in greater detail.
- Rose tore his left ACL in the 2012 NBA Playoffs.
- Ten games into his long-awaited return, Rose tore the meniscus in his right knee in November 2013.
- In February 2015, Rose again tore that same surgically repaired right meniscus.
- Not related to his knee, but a significant injury nonetheless, Rose fractured his orbital bone in 2015 and suffered from blurred vision intermittently in the early parts of the 2015-16 season.
- In the final weeks of the 2017 season, Rose tore the meniscus in his left knee. This meant he has now had two surgeries on each knee.
It’s no exaggeration to say that list is more extensive than any other player currently in the NBA.
It’s worth noting that the Bulls’ playoff opponent when Rose first tore his ACL was the Philadelphia 76ers. If it feels like “The Process” has been going on for a long time, the end of their playoff run having beaten a Rose-less Bulls marked its beginning.
It also represented the last time Derrick Rose was truly at the forefront of the NBA’s best players.
Aside from his storied injury troubles, in 2016 Rose was also brought before the court in a civil litigation and later found “not liable” of rape, but not after a number of troubling details were to emerge.
Also troubling to prospective future employers in the NBA, Rose went AWOL prior to a game against the New Orleans Pelicans last season, without giving any prior notice or communication to the Knicks. Rose reportedly had to leave for a family emergency in Chicago, but was subsequently fined for his sudden disappearance.