http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/21/sports/basketball/bulls-derrick-rose-puts-himself-first-nobody-else-will-.html 2014-11-20 21:25:34 Bulls’ Derrick Rose Puts Himself First (Nobody Else Will) Bulls guard Derrick Rose should be applauded, not pilloried, for the long view he has taken with his physical health. === Derrick Rose, the Chicago Bulls’ phenomenal, injury-prone point guard, last week offered one of the wisest insights I’ve heard from a young player about negotiating injury and longevity in pro sports. “I know a lot of people get mad when they see me sit out,” Rose said recently. “But I think a lot of people don’t understand that when I sit out it’s not because of this year. I’m thinking about long-term. I’m thinking about after I’m done with basketball, having graduations to go to, having meetings to go to. “I don’t want to be in my meetings all sore or be at my son’s graduation all sore just because of something I did in the past,” he added. Rose called his go-it-slow approach to rehabilitation “just learning and being smart.” But reading His most interesting comment came when he was asked if dealing with two seasons’ worth of injuries had changed his perspective — on the industry, on fans and on his athletic life. “Yeah,” Rose said. “It’s just letting me know what’s real.” Too often athletes don’t really know or learn what’s real until it’s too late. Largely, because young athletes are programmed to focus on what’s in front of them: one game at a time, the here and now, the moment. They are not encouraged to do the long-term planning, to think about walking without a limp, about living out their years with chronic pain. There is a constant tug of war in sports between morals and ethics, between what is morally correct and what is ethically expected. The morality of sports compels the head coach to tell an injured player not to play. The tough-it-out, play-with-pain ethics of sport demands that the injured player at least attempt to play. Sadly, the economics of sports demands that you play when you’re hurt, that you come back before it’s time. Case in point: Washington quarterback Robert Griffin III. Two seasons ago, he was the N.F.L.'s brightest light. Now he is struggling to hold on to his starting job as well as his team. In Week 13 of his rookie season, in a game against the Baltimore Ravens, Griffin was hurt when Ravens defensive end Haloti Ngata slammed into him on a tackle, twisting his right knee. He was clearly hurt, but Griffin sat out one game, but he played the next two — helping Washington Griffin had been determined to stay in the game to show leadership and courage. That was all well and good, but his valor has not stopped the Washington fans who once saluted his toughness from calling for him This is what Rose was referring to when he said his injuries — and the fan reaction to them — had shown him what is real. Athletes are mere cogs in a wheel, discarded as soon as they are no longer useful. In April 2012, a year after he was named the N.B.A.'s most valuable player, Rose tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee in the opening game of the playoffs. He was cleared to play by team doctors in March 2013 but chose to continue to sit out, even as the Bulls scraped and clawed their way into the conference semifinals without him. He was severely criticized for not playing in that first-round series against the Nets, which the Bulls won in seven games. Last year he injured his right knee, and tests confirmed that he tore his meniscus and needed surgery. Rose was shut down for the season. That brings us to the current season. He has played in five of the Bulls’ first 11 games, and In many ways, Rose is doing as an individual what San Antonio Coach Gregg Popovich is doing with his entire team: negotiating the rigors of an 82-game regular-season schedule the best way he can. Only 26, Rose has had two major knee operations which have kept him out for the better part of two full seasons. The reality is that he doesn’t have many falls left. He had better keep playing — and not playing — smart. Critics be dammed.