By K.C. JOHNSON
Tribune News Service
Unfortunately for the Bulls, they are well-versed in dealing with a Derrick Rose knee injury.
So after their Wednesday morning shootaround, they reacted to Rose’s second right medial meniscus tear the way one might expect — with shock, empathy and resolve.
There’s a basketball game to be played Wednesday night against the Charlotte Hornets, one for which Kirk Hinrich and Taj Gibson will return from illness and coach Tom Thibodeau said Aaron Brooks may start for Rose. But for a moment, players and coaches stopped to remind all of Rose the person, not the player.
“I don’t know what to say other than it’s so unfair,” Thibodeau said. “The guy has been through so much. What he has put into it and this one — not that anytime you have surgery it’s not tough — will hopefully be much shorter than the other ones. But the big thing is our concern for him first as a person.”
Joakim Noah, who turned 30 Wednesday, declined to talk to reporters. Kirk Hinrich did so but struggled to find the proper words.
“It’s a blow because one of our teammates is down,” Hinrich said. “It hurts to see anyone go down, especially someone who is as good a person as Derrick is and the history he’s had with injuries. … I’m still shocked. I can’t imagine what he’s gone through these last three years. Just when it seems like he was hitting his stride, playing great, the team felt like he had put (his earlier struggles) behind him, for this to happen is devastating.”
Thibodeau said surgery hasn’t been scheduled, but a source said it will happen sooner rather than later, likely this week. Team physician Brian Cole, who also repaired Rose’s first torn meniscus in November 2013, will perform the procedure. In November 2013, Rose underwent surgery two days after the injury.
An official timeline for Rose’s return won’t be known until Cole performs the surgery, but multiple sources said the belief is this tear isn’t as significant as the one Rose had in November 2013. One source said the expectation is that this procedure will be of the arthroscopic variety, suggesting a shorter rehabilitation period.
Two other sources said Rose was told after the initial surgery that a future tear was possible, if not likely, and that a second procedure typically involves “cutting” or “snipping” the damage. That generally involves a rehabilitation process of three to eight weeks.
Although Russell Westbrook of the Thunder suffered a lateral meniscus injury, he returned from the final of his three surgical procedures in two months. Bulls rookie Doug McDermott exited the surgical procedure to repair his small meniscus tear in December without crutches and returned in one month.
“I don’t want us to skip over anything,” Thibodeau said. “I just want us to take it as it comes and let him have his surgery. We’ll take a look at it once we have a better understanding of the timeline. We have to have patience. We just have to take it day-by-day.”
The Bulls are expected to add backcourt insurance via their open roster spot. Thibodeau said it’s premature to speculate on names, although the Bulls have had recent contact with Mike James, sources said.
“As you can imagine, it’s not an easy thing because of how everyone feels about him, who he is,” Thibodeau said. “But our reality is the games are going to keep coming, and we’ve been through it before. Our team, the thing that I think makes them special is how they care about each other, so we’ll have a spirit about us that we’re going to have to fight through things, but overall our concern is with Derrick.
“It’s something that we’ve dealt with. We’ve had 11 games (without Rose) this year. And then the guys that have been here have been through it. We’ll adjust accordingly. The one thing is you look at the team and Jimmy (Butler) is a lot different now and of course Pau (Gasol). We have different strengths. Joakim has been through it a couple times now. We’ll adjust that way.”
Gasol summed up the team’s feelings well.
“Very tough news, unexpected,” he said. “Heartbreaking in a way because of how much has been through for the last couple years. Difficult to deal with, we feel for him. He’s definitely a key player for us, as well. Right now, we just support him and we wish that everything goes well, the surgery goes well and he recovers successfully and well. Right now, that’s all we can do, try to keep our minds in the game and then do our best on the floor so we can continue to make progress as a team.”
