The D-Rose Blues

I’ve got the D-Rose Blues and they don't feel good.

About 2 months ago my wife and I came home on a Friday night after dinner out with some friends.  As we entered our apartment I was excited that the Bulls were playing in Portland against the Trail Blazers, because that meant the game started around 9pm instead of 7pm so I hadn’t missed much of the game.  I sat down turned on the game to discover that the Bulls had come out blazin’ (pun intended).  D-Rose looked like he was finally hitting his groove.  It had been a rough start to the season but he had 17pts in the first half.

As the second half began I was pleasantly surprised that the Bulls were leading a game on the dreaded Circus Road Trip part of their schedule.  They usually come out of that road trip with a pretty lousy record, but if they could win this game it could help make the road trip more bearable.

Then towards the end of the 3^rd quarter the Bulls let the Trail Blazers back into the game and Rose was cutting towards the basket.  The Blazers stole the ball and Rose pivoted his knee to go back on defense but as he moved something was wrong!  I could sense it right away.  He turned a casual turn, the kind basketball players make a 100 times a game but his knee couldn’t take the turn.

The camera followed the fast break on the other side of the court but I didn’t care about that, I cared about the little guy at the far left of the screen who was now LIMPING up the court.

The next 10 minutes I was in panic.  Stacey King and Neil Funk kept calling the game like nothing was going on, but there were doctors around Rose!  I knew it was going to be bad news but King and Funk continued to not say anything about it.  Didn’t they realize this was the end of the 2013-2014 Bulls season.
I watched the rest of the game in horror.  Even watched the post game show hoping for news on Rose.  I was 'DApressed' that this could happen again.  I kept asking Why?Why? as I texted my friends and as my wife mourned with me then laughed at me and reminded me that it's basketball, but that fell on deaf ears.

Hours later the news broke that the knee injury was bad and then a couple days later it was announced that Rose was out for the whole season.

This is when I began to get stuck in the D-Rose blues.

The D-Rose blues is the realization that another full season of Bulls basketball is irrelevant.  The D-Rose blues is turning on a Bulls game and cheering for them to win but in the front of your mind you realize it would be better if they lost every game to get a lottery pick in this years hyped NBA Draft.  The D-Rose blues is cheering for your favorite team to lose but then feeling like a bad fan so changing your mind but then feeling sad when they win a game.  The D-Rose blues is hoping that your favorite coach in the world would take his foot off the gas and let the team lose this year because it’ll give them a better future.  The D-Rose blues is seeing how dysfunctional of a franchise you cheer for and reading they might trade one of the best coaches in the NBA.  The D-Rose blues is seeing Luol Deng get traded and getting excited that the Bulls got more draft picks and saved 20 Million dollars in salary, though they lost an amazing defender and one of the leaders of the team.  The D-Rose blues is loving a team that’s future seems bleak.

I love the Chicago Bulls but what will Derrick Rose look like next year?  Can he make it through a season of basketball ever again?  Will Tom Thibodeau be their coach next year?  Can the Bulls ever win the NBA Championship again?

These questions will remain unanswered for a while.  As they wait to be answered I’ll place my hope in a young man named Nikola Mirotić

And if all else fails well I’m becoming a Chicago Sky Fan and fully embracing Elena Delle Donne