He was a sensation, the kind of player you build a team around, and at age 23, the youngest Most Valuable Player in NBA history.
In the 2010/11 season, the Chicago Bulls led the NBA with 62 victories, and Derrick Rose was an easy choice as MVP, over LeBron James, Kobe Bryant and everyone else. Chicago lost to Miami in the Eastern Conference finals, but it had the feel of “unfinished business”. Rose and the Bulls would be back.
It has not happened. In the 2012 play-offs, Rose’s left knee exploded. He missed the entire 2012/13 season because of a particularly prolonged recovery.
He was 11 games into his comeback this season when he injured his right knee, on Friday. Again, he was untouched when the injury occurred. He had surgery on Monday, the team announced that Rose would miss the remainder of the season, which will probably result in a better long-term prognosis, but it effectively means the current campaign will be lost.
And then? A player who had a chance to make Chicago get over the departure of Michael Jordan might be an ordinary player circumscribed by serial injuries. In his comeback this year, he was not the same player he had been before the first surgery. His timing was off, his explosiveness not quite the same.
More rehabilitation is ahead, and we are left with more questions about Rose and whether he will realise the great potential he showed at such a young age.
sports@thenational.ae
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The specs: 2018 Mazda CX-5
Price, base / as tested: Dh89,000 / Dh130,000
Engine: 2.5-litre four-cylinder
Power: 188hp @ 6,000rpm
Torque: 251Nm @ 4,000rpm
Transmission: Six-speed automatic
Fuel consumption, combined: 7.1L / 100km
Prop idols
Girls full-contact rugby may be in its infancy in the Middle East, but there are already a number of role models for players to look up to.
Sophie Shams (Dubai Exiles mini, England sevens international)
An Emirati student who is blazing a trail in rugby. She first learnt the game at Dubai Exiles and captained her JESS Primary school team. After going to study geophysics at university in the UK, she scored a sensational try in a cup final at Twickenham. She has played for England sevens, and is now contracted to top Premiership club Saracens.
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Seren Gough-Walters (Sharjah Wanderers mini, Wales rugby league international)
Few players anywhere will have taken a more circuitous route to playing rugby on Sky Sports. Gough-Walters was born in Al Wasl Hospital in Dubai, raised in Sharjah, did not take up rugby seriously till she was 15, has a master’s in global governance and ethics, and once worked as an immigration officer at the British Embassy in Abu Dhabi. In the summer of 2021 she played for Wales against England in rugby league, in a match that was broadcast live on TV.
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Erin King (Dubai Hurricanes mini, Ireland sevens international)
Aged five, Australia-born King went to Dubai Hurricanes training at The Sevens with her brothers. She immediately struck up a deep affection for rugby. She returned to the city at the end of last year to play at the Dubai Rugby Sevens in the colours of Ireland in the Women’s World Series tournament on Pitch 1.
