Rose Debate Needs to Be Put to Rest

Rose has been practicing full speed, but still no return

We've all heard about it, analyzed it, dreamed about it and grown tired of it. The Return of Derrick Rose has been hyped up since the Chicago Bulls' star point guard crumpled to the United Center floor last April in Game 1 of the playoffs. With the season nearing its end, we're now starting to wonder if DRose will ever make The Return or if it truly was all hype. Rose has been practicing with the Bulls and everyone who has seen him claims that he is ready to go, but he has yet to hit the game floor. Every day is a new day of speculation and its time to end that. It has affected the entire Bulls organization in a negative way and its time that they make a statement with a definite date.

Rose suffered a torn ACL, which many have always thought meant a year on the shelf. However, along came Adrian Peterson and the idea has changed. Obviously no man's body is the same, but Peterson returned to the field just nine months after the same injury and not only played, but dominated. He won the MVP award for the Vikings and nearly broke the single-season rushing record. With that fresh in everyone's' mind, Rose's patience is almost frustrating. But why?

You can view DRose's situation in two ways: smart or scared. He is either smart for waiting and being patient; making sure his knee and body are back to full strength so that he doesn't ruin the rest of his career, or he is scared. Scared that he won't be the dominant point guard that he was before the injury and scared that he might get hurt again. Whichever way you look at it, its okay. Rose is smart for waiting and its 100 percent okay if he is a bit scared. For a player as explosive as he is, it has to be frightening to go out and continue that style of play after tearing your knee up.

Blake Griffin sat out his rookie season due to knee surgery and nobody made a big deal about it. In fact, before Peterson made his triumphant return to the field, the general move with knee injuries was for the athlete to take his time and not rush anything in the recovery process. Yet, there was Peterson on the brink of history and suddenly we were wondering how soon DRose would make the much anticipated Return.

We're still wondering.

I have no problem with Rose showing patience and not rushing anything, but I do have a problem with the constant media circus that revolves around his status. In the day and age of Twitter, Facebook and instant news, the Bulls have made life difficult for themselves by not giving a definite date of when Rose will return. I fully understand that no one knows when he will be healthy enough to play and even he said that God only knows. However, that leaves it open for every day speculation and that wears on the rest of the team. In Chicago, this season hasn't been about the Bulls, but rather Derrick Rose's injury. That's not fair to the rest of the team and it has to have taken a toll.

The locker room interviews for Bulls players this season consist of a few questions about the upcoming game and then a flurry of questions about Rose's status. That gets old. It also gets old for the fans who have to speculate if tonight will be the night. It has become a source of frustration and it could easily be fixed if the Bulls came out and said Rose wasn't coming back until some specific date. Say he's not coming back at all this season and at least you end the circus. No one will be mad if he ends up coming back this season. The point is, some date needs to be given so that the speculation will stop and the Bulls can focus on basketball.

For Rose, he needs to continue to work and try and get on the court as soon as possible. I don't think taking an entire year off is something he wants to do, but at the same time I do realize this team isn't built for a championship run. That said, the Bulls are going to make the playoffs and anything can happen once the postseason starts. Obviously I want to see Rose out there, but he has a long career ahead of him and it may be best if he waits until next season.

Whatever the decision is, let's make one sooner rather than later. The Return was nice and hyped, but now it looks like one big joke. It's time for the speculation to end and it's time for Chicago to focus on Bulls basketball as the postseason begins...with or without their MVP.