Why Derrick Rose Should Play Already!

The sports world (and in particular a very, very, desperate Mike Wilbon) is having a discussion right now about Derrick Rose and the tendons, ligaments and the like in his knee that are subsequently keeping him from taking the court against the Lebrons.

If you don't know, he dud one of these, and his knee kind of zigged when it should have zagged

Everybody is on the opinion of "Hey, Derrick, you take your time, you come back when you're ready.

You just go and do you.  Want a snow cone little buddy?

I'm writing this because I find myself tied to Derrick Rose in a way I never expected. Aside from obvious basketball talent of course. I'm just a draft pick away from being the first 27 year old rookie, 6 foot, 175 pound white center with very minimal guard skills to be drafted first overall in the NBA. I keep entering my name in the NBA draft, but nothing to report as of yet.

Modeled my game after Chubbs from Teen Wolf

Anyway...

I feel for Derrick Rose, because literally, we went though knee injury and rehab on the same time schedule. When I say literally I mean I had my surgery on May 11th, he had his on May 15. I chronicled this (well, until I got bored and could run again) in my blog, aclbomb.wordpress.com.

Thinking about this last night when I heard the date of his surgery, I couldn't help but think he should have been back on the court a while ago. The fact that he hasn't by now means he's not going to play this season and he should just say so.

But because he keeps hinting he might play I'm here to say something nobody in the sports world has been willing to say for some reason, and I don't get really get it.

Derrick Rose should Man up and play. This series, against the Heat, Tonight. Your not playing hurts your team, hurts your city, hurts your chances. A team, by the way, who is the walking wounded at this point and who is giving it EVERYTHING they have.

Despite my proclamations, I'm no professional athlete. (Unless you are a talent scout perusing sports blogs looking for a rags-to-ritches success story, in that case I'm a 6 foot Dikembe Mutumbo) I worked hard at my rehab, but it wasn't the main thing in my life, I still had to work and move on with my life. It's not a fun thing to go through, the squats and jump roping, the plyo-lunges and the tortures physical therapists can think up.

Want to feel like a little girl? Try 10 of these.  No Joke

By all respects Derrick Rose worked harder at his rehab than I did. He had more people invested, he probably woke up every day and went through the grind that is rehabbing your knee. He had reason to. 100 million little green reasons.

So I worked out once or twice a week (basically I quit going to rehab as soon as I could jog), and I returned to sports three months ago. I've played basketball, soccer, ultimate frisbee and racquetball since coming back. I feel about as explosive as I did then.

I get it, Rose I really do. It's a scary thing to go back out there, but at some point you've just got to do it. After you reach that 8 month mark in ACL Rehab, you're about as recovered as you're going to be. You're more likely to tear it again than people who haven't torn their knee up, but that's always going to be the case the rest of your life. Them's the berries about rehab.

Everyone says he shouldn't come back too early, and to look at Gilbert Arenas as the prime example as to why. Here's the problem with that statement: Arenas (aside from being a fairly stupid human being, See: gun arrests, etc.) actually came back too early.

DERRICK ROSE WAS CLEARED THREE MONTHS AGO TO RESUME BASKETBALL ACTIVITES. Which he did. He's been practicing with the Bulls for that entire time. The question then becomes, why hasn't he played?

And the only answer people can up with? He's not ready mentally, or he doesn't want to yet.

Adrian Peterson came back after 4 months to lead the league in rushing and win an MVP. RG3 is eyeing the same kind of comeback for the start of the season.

Everyone heals differently, but as some point its about taking the field again and getting over it. What better opportunity do you have than to take a shot at Lebron tonight. If you lose, no big deal, you have a built in excuse, but if you win, you're a legend.

This is a moment of great opportunity.  Put on the big boy pants

-Joel