Bulls fans hearts sunk when Derrick Rose writhed in pain on the floor of the United Center near the end of Game 1 of the Bulls first-round series against the Sixers. That was nothing compared to the emotions running through the 2010 MVP’s head. Rose has opened up for the first time since the torn ACL and says that was the “closest thing to death” for him.
I remember it,” he recalled. “I remember everything. I remember jumping in the air and coming back down, and just that popping sound. I felt it actually tear when I laid all the way out and it just let go. I didn’t have that that much pain after that. In the beginning I did, but I didn’t want to yell or anything. When that happened, all I could think about was people just talking. You could hear the whole arena, people just whispering all around — one of the things, like ‘Not again. Come on, man. First game back. We had the win’ — and I was just hoping [it was] nothing serious, then, we got to the hospital, got in the MRI machine, the whole time praying.
“Dr. [Brian] Cole, the Bulls doctor [who also performed the subsequent surgery], came up to me and told me it was torn. I couldn’t believe it. That’s the closest thing to death, the closest to death I’ve got to right there, where it just seemed like the wind and everything was taken out [of me].”
