A point guard is exactly what the Knicks were missing. And in Jeremy Lin, they’ve gotten just that. If this team clicks with both Melo and Stoudemire on the floor along with Lin at the one, the Knicks could possibly be a serious contender come playoff time.
Somewhere on the road between Grantland and Mudville, we had to pull over to pee.
Chicago loses its native son.
As a fan of Chicago sports, I can say that I’m fairly used to disappointment over the last few years. My beloved White Sox can’t seem to get it going. With the exception of 2009 and 2010, The Blackhawks would constantly give me headaches, but there is something about Derrick Rose’s knee injury that seems to hurt a lot more than anything else.
At the start of this outlandishly shortened season, anyone with proper cognitive thought processes knew that there would be a treasure trove of injuries. And when those injuries happened, they would be career altering. That’s just common sense. You cannot compress sixty-six games into a 120-something day season, no training camp and reduced practice time without there being consequences. Derrick, like many other players this year, was a product of this terribly constructed season. Regardless of what team you root for, you never want to see a guy go down like this. No matter how much I dislike Lebron, I still want him on the floor when my team plays him. You want the best players on the court every time. There’s always an asterisk next to a win if the superstars aren’t playing.
Most Chicago fans are up in arms over Tom Thibodeau’s decision to leave Rose in with just 1:14 left to play. Hell, at first, I was definitely one of them. After thinking about it, and somewhat getting over the initial shock of the injury itself, it makes sense. The lead was going South, and Philly is a team that lives and dies by streaks. At any given time, they could go on an absolute tear, and comeback to either win, or tie the game. Out of the fifteen coaches left, sixteen would’ve done the same exact thing. It’s the playoffs, you have to keep your foot on the gas for the entire game. The NBA playoffs aren’t like the NHL or the MLB playoffs. Home court advantage is beyond important, and you don’t want to lose that your first game. An ACL injury is one in which is almost unavoidable. I’m not a doctor, so me getting into specifics about that doesn’t do anyone any good. The one thing I will say, is, his knee could’ve gone at the end of the game or the start of the second. It’s a freak accident that isn’t anyone’s fault.
In the end, it’s sad to see a player of any caliber end his season like this. It hurts the NBA, it hurts the guys around that team and it frustrates the fans to no end. As someone who has followed The Bulls for years, I can honestly say that this is the toughest issue I’ve ever had to deal with. I can only imagine what the team, and Rose are actually going through. Looking on the bright side, quite a few players have comeback from this same injury even stronger. As for Derrick, well, only time will tell.
-Chris
