Chris Snan, Staff Columnist~
In recent news, a lot of injuries have been occurring in the NBA, with one of the more notable ones involving starting point guard of the Cleveland Cavaliers, Derrick Rose. Rose went down a couple weeks ago with a high ankle sprain, and hasn’t returned to the court since. That’s because during his absence he’s been contemplating giving up basketball and hanging up the jersey.
D-Rose has had quite the history with injuries, especially significant ones. It was in 2012 when Rose first went down during the NBA 2012 playoffs. At the time, Rose was just coming off a magnificent 2011-2012 season where he won MVP (most valuable player), and in doing so became the youngest player in NBA history to win it at 22. A lot of people believed that Rose would’ve been one of the best players early in his career because of that MVP season. However, a year later Rose tore his ACL, and from there it just kept going downhill for the young star.
It didn’t take long for Rose to follow up that ACL tear with a series of ankle sprains, wrist injuries, hamstring strains and to top all that off, a meniscus tear. Before he knew it, everybody forgot about the MVP he once was. Instead, people saw him as his injuries and nothing more.
As of 2016, Rose was listed to have missed a total of 257 games, out of 734 games. From 2011-2015, Rose had only played 100 games. Now that might seem like a lot, but in one year there are 82 NBA games, which means there were a total of 246 games during that time, and he missed 146 of them. As a player, missing that many games takes a toll on you, not just physically but mentally as well. Hence why Rose has kept thoughts of retirement in the back of his mind in light of his most recent injury playing for the Cavaliers. Fellow teammate, Lebron James, said he hopes for the best for Rose, whatever he decides.
As a fan, one can only hope that Rose finds a way to bounce back from all these injuries and return to that MVP-type of play. Unfortunately, the odds of that happening are slim to none in his current predicament. It’s more likely that Rose will sign for retirement to better his own health, but maybe, just maybe, he will finish the season. Only he knows what will happen next.