Why Derrick Rose Needs To Return From His ACL Injury…Now

Derrick Rose is the owner of one of the more discussed ligaments in recent memory.  That ligament, his anterior cruciate (ACL), was torn on April 28 of last year.  Chicago Bulls fans (and, really, all NBA fans) have been awaiting Rose’s return on baited breath and yet he taunts them still.  It was reported last week that Rose will not step back on the court just yet as he is “not quite” ready to return, and he will not be ready until he can dunk off of his left foot comfortably.  Meanwhile, Iman Shumpert, he of one less MVP award and one more amazing hi-top, tore his ACL on the same exact day and has been playing since January 17.  Now, you can’t compare one case to another fairly, but I think we can fairly ask…what gives D-Rose?

I’ve treated dozens of patients who have undergone ACL reconstruction.  Granted, none of them were NBA players, but many of them were high school or college level basketball players, others played football, soccer, or hockey or were New York City Firemen.  Of the basketball players, just about all of them were performing basketball activities within 6 months, and most of them were back to playing within 9 months.  If you look at the record of NBA players, they have a very similar experience (most recently, Shumpert and Ricky Rubio both returned almost exactly 9 months from their injury).  So here we are, more than 10 months from his injury, and Rose isn’t playing, even though all of his doctors have cleared him to play.

I fully understand that it is up to the individual to determine when they feel ready to get back into their respective sport and I obviously don’t know what Rose feels like right now when he’s trying to play.  But I’ve never heard anyone not want to play AT ALL because they don’t feel comfortable doing one (relatively minor) component of their game.   In fact, I almost always have to fight people to keep them from getting back to doing what they love.   I could understand if Rose felt awkward cutting or was getting swollen and sore after using his knee for any strenuous activity.  But he doesn’t feel right dunking off his left foot?  I don’t think that’s really the problem.  He already stated that he “doesn’t mind taking a year off.”  Being that his doctors have correctly assured him he has no more chance now of injuring his knee than he did a year ago, I think Rose is being apprehensive.

Ligaments serve two main functions in the body: to restrict motion and provide proprioception, or position sense, to the brain.  There are receptors in ligaments that basically tell your brain where your body is.  Have any friends who sprain their ankle a lot? It’s mainly because after sustaining a couple of sprains, the ligaments lose some of their ability to sense position and all of a sudden those little cracks in the ground become pretty imposing.  The ACL does this for the knee in addition to stabilizing it.  So, um, it’s important for someone who may literally be the quickest player in the history of the league. Here’s his ACL in action:


One can understand how someone like Rose need to feel ready.  But what I’m wondering is if Rose understands just what “ready” means when coming back from ACL surgery.  It doesn’t mean that you feel 100% like you once did.  That criteria would never allow anyone to step on the court or the field, because you don’t feel like you did UNTIL you get on the court or field repeatedly.  Just about every patient I’ve ever had said they needed a year to feel the same – a year of doing exactly what they used to do.  Strength, control, confidence – these things only come from participating in the real deal.  Pro-athletes are no exception.

At the end of the day, I think Rose is wasting precious time of his prime waiting for that perfect moment to play again.  Once cleared, the best thing he can do is get back to NBA speed.  If he waits until next year, he will spend the entire 2013-14 season playing catch-up, essentially losing almost 2 years of his prime instead of one.  He’s also wasting a year of Luol Deng’s and Joakim Noah’s primes (although Rose’s brother might not think that’s a big deal).  I know he’s only 24, but how long can he be the quickest man alive?  I hope he bites the bullet and comes back soon.

I really don’t want to see any more of this. We need a little D-Rose.

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