Consider this the latest installment to the Derrick Rose non-update update series, although if you’ve clicked through this far, we’ll assume you have at least a moderate interest level in the ongoing saga.
Rose met the media at the beginning of the second round of the playoffs, and continued to say his return was “up in the air,” which in turn continued to fuel the fire of hope that he may in fact come back at some point in this postseason.
The rumors reached a fever pitch before Game 3, thanks to a baseless report that Rose might be in uniform for that one, which the folks during the Game 2 broadcast took 10 steps further to essentially lead you to believe that Rose taking the court once the series shifted to Chicago was close to being a foregone conclusion.
As it turned out, there was no change in Rose’s status for Game 3, and anyone paying even a little bit of attention throughout this whole thing could have accurately predicted as much.
Now that Game 4 is approaching, the latest is that Rose is in fact out for the rest of the series, and his head coach Tom Thibodeau is aware -- even though when asked, he’ll continue to say he’s day-to-day. But the addendum to that is a bit more interesting.
From Aggrey Sam of CSN Chicago:Despite erroneous reports that he was set to dress for Game 3, according to a person with knowledge of the situation, the former league MVP won’t return to the court in the series, something Thibodeau is aware of.
However, at the outset of the second round, Rose did strongly consider coming back, but ultimately decided against it, another source said.
It’s been widely assumed that Rose had never planned to return once the regular season ended and the Bulls were into the playoffs. Not only because of the increased intensity level and physicality (especially in this series), but because of how it might have impacted the players who have played without him for 82 regular season games, plus 10 (and counting) in the playoffs.
This should quell the conspiracy theorists who believed all along that Rose had some master plan to sit the season out from Day One, but the word fan is short for fanatic after all, so maybe the fervor surrounding this whole situation should have been expected from the start.