Rose’s Injury: Who’s to blame?

The city of Chicago is still in shock from the Bulls’ first round opener with the 76ers. Although the Bulls won (103-91), it felt like they lost game seven for the NBA championship Saturday afternoon because of Derrick Rose’s knee injury towards the end of the game. The Bulls were leading by 12 when Rose, who was playing, tore his ACL with less than two minutes left in regulation. Many people have criticized Coach Thibodeau for the fact that Rose was playing garbage minutes when Chicago had a 20-point lead on Philly. Did Thibodeau make the wrong decision on keeping Rose in? I don’t think so.

I’ll be the first to admit that when Rose got injured, I was looking for someone to blame. I wanted to blame Thibodeau for having Rose play garbage minutes thinking: If Rose wasn’t playing towards the end, this wouldn’t have happened!

But the more I thought about it, I realized that it wasn’t Thibodeau’s fault, not in the least. First of all, there was no contact between Rose and any other player that caused his injury. His torn ACL was an accident. If someone had purposely run into Rose or if Rose had stepped awkwardly on one of the players, it could have possibly been a different story. But that’s not what happened. Rose had a horrible non-contact injury that was an awful, misfortunate event. If anything, Rose’s injury could be due to the fact that he was doing an aggressive move. We all know that when Rose drives to the basket, he puts more pressure on his body than when he shoots from afar so the chance of injury is more likely to occur (contact and non-contact speaking). Non-contact ACL injuries like Rose’s result from excessive quadriceps force, sudden acceleration/deceleration and not transferred stress from the ankle. I’m not saying Rose’s decision to make his way to the basket is necessarily the cause of his injury, but some type of pressure on his knee caused his ACL to tear. I’ll say it again: I don’t believe it was Thibodeau’s decision to keep Rose in the game that resulted in Rose’s torn ACL. Just because Rose played a few extra minutes based on Thibodeau’s instruction hardly means that Rose was sure to be injured. Rose landed wrong, it happens. 

Secondly, like Thibodeau said, this could have happened to Rose at any time. It’s unfortunate that his injury occurred at the end of the postseason opener against Philly, but Rose (or any other player for that matter) could have gotten injured in the beginning of the game, end of the game or even during a practice. The point is this could have happened to anyone of the players at any time, but that answer isn’t satisfying enough for some Chicago fans who are still in shock and despair. My problem with those fans who are criticizing Thibodeau’s decision to leave Rose in is: We tend to look for someone to blame when things go wrong. Was Rose playing garbage minutes? Was there a reason for this? Absolutely. Although the Bulls were leading the 76ers by 20 towards the end of the game, the large gap decreased to 12 in just a little more than three minutes. “I don’t work backwards like you guys,” Thibodeau said. “The score was going the other way." We all know that leading by 12 in a basketball game isn’t saying much since things can change very quickly in the sport. Don’t believe me? Check out the highlights of the Clippers’ comeback against the Grizzlies Sunday. It seems foolhardy to call any lead safe after watching that game. Since the Bulls’ outcome was uncertain, Thibodeau felt the MVP should remain in the game. Like Thibs said, “They (76ers) had cut a lead down to 12, and we’re going to have our guys on the floor making sure that we win the basketball game, especially in that situation.”

Along with the particular situation at hand, I believe Thibodeau wanted Rose to close the game for the simple reason that he wanted Rose to get used to it. It’s the playoffs and Rose had missed several regular season games. Thibodeau wanted Rose to get back into the groove of closing games because the playoffs are clutch and you need your go-to guy to be ready for anything, which is why Rose was still playing in my opinion.

Lastly, Rose’s injury is not a death sentence, but a common injury amongst athletes. Although it will take some time, Rose’s injury can be healed, and he will be able to play again once he receives the proper therapy he needs. Sam Smith discussed ACL injuries amongst basketball players after Rose’s injury saying, “The history of these injuries is players recover well. The AOS Medical Center in Glendale, California studied anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction for NBA players between 1994 and 2005. They used the Player Efficiency Statistic to compare performance before and after the injury. Of the 21 players who returned to play of 27 studied (six were older and retired), 15 percent performed better on the statistical measure, 19 percent were within one percentage point and 44 percent decreased somewhat but not substantially.” The question on everyone’s mind is: Will the old Derrick Rose return after his injury heals? No one knows for sure, but I believe he will continue to be the great player we all know him to be because Rose has the rare characteristic of absolute determination flowing through his veins.

Long story short, my point is it is impossible for anyone to predict what could or would have happened if the situation were different. What if Thibodeau had pulled Rose out earlier? What if CJ Watson or John Lucas had closed the game? Would the Bulls still have won? Would Rose have not been injured? What if this had happened instead? What if that? What ifs are a waste of time. We’ll never know what could have happened because Rose’s non-contact ACL injury towards the end of the game is what did happen. So who’s to blame for Rose’s injury? I don’t think it’s anyone’s fault. It was just fate.

Many Chicago fans are quick to judge the circumstances that occurred Saturday afternoon in retrospect, but when the situation was currently at hand, no one had anything bad to say and happily cheered for their Bulls. Hindsight, as they say, is 20/20.