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Jimmy Butler attributes "a big part" of his success in his breakthrough second season to the support and encouragement from the rehabbing Derrick Rose.

"He was a big part of the success I had later in the year because he was constantly telling me I've seen you do this, I've seen you make those shots, you take those shots," Butler said Wednesday on "The Waddle & Silvy Show" on ESPN Chicago 1000. "Every shot you take, think it's going in, think you're going to make it. When you have somebody like that on your side who is constantly building you up it makes it easier to go out and perform and do well."

A first-round pick in 2011, Butler emerged as a key player for the Bulls in his second season after playing in just 42 games as a rookie. He played in all 82 games, averaging 8.6 points and 4.0 rebounds.

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CHICAGO -- Chicago Bulls Hall of Famer Scottie Pippen said Bulls guard Derrick Rose didn't deserve to be criticized by fans for sitting out the entire the 2012-13 season while rehabbing from a torn ACL in his left knee.

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Phil Jackson said Wednesday that critics of Derrick Rose should back off the Chicago Bulls star, who missed the entire 2012-13 season after undergoing ACL surgery on May 12, 2012.

"Leave him alone," Jackson said on "Mike & Mike in the Morning" on ESPN Radio. "This is a guy who hopefully ... still has another 10 years to play. Let's not put him in under duress that may not be the right time.

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MIAMI -- Chicago Bulls guard Derrick Rose was ruled out of their 94-91 loss in Game 5 of an Eastern Conference semifinal against the Miami Heat, meaning he officially missed the entire season after undergoing ACL surgery on May 12, 2012.

Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau said the team was right to take a cautious approach with its star this season.

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CHICAGO -- Al Capone's vault is no longer the biggest hoax in Chicago history.

Welcome to the top spot, Derrick Rose's "Return."

After the inspiring adidas "Return" documentary advertorial that started the season of our discontent, and all the time wasted, I mean spent, monitoring and predicting and debating the date of Rose's return and then ruminating on the murky reasons why it didn't happen, it's mercifully over.

The Miami Heat finished off a 4-1 series victory in the Eastern Conference semifinals Wednesday, so it's officially official that Rose will not return this season. I don't need a source to verify it.

Rose is now free to shoot around in private, rather than before games, and stash the playoff suits until his next GQ cover shoot. He can continue his training at the Berto Center and in Los Angeles, and prepare for a long-awaited return to action next fall.

He will be ready. We will be ready. Let the healing begin!

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NEW YORK -- Floyd Mayweather Jr. is the highest-earning athlete in American sports for the second straight year.

The boxer is projected to make $90 million in 2013, according to Sports Illustrated's annual list released Wednesday. Miami Heat star LeBron James is a distant second at $56.5 million.

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Craig Robinson performed a song For Derrick Rose on SportsNation.

J.A. Adande and Israel Gutierrez on whether it's fair to criticize Derrick Rose for not playing, or if people should, as Joakim Noah said, "shut up."

Nick Friedell, Sam Smith and John Jurkovic discuss Derrick Rose's decision not to return so far in the playoffs.

MIAMI -- The Miami Heat say they won't be caught off guard if Derrick Rose makes an unexpected comeback for the Chicago Bulls in their second-round playoff series.

Rose, who has not played all season since having ACL knee surgery a year ago, has traveled and practiced with the Bulls for at least two months.

Neither Rose nor the Bulls have ruled the former league MVP out for the playoffs, though coach Tom Thibodeau said at the start of the playoffs that he was doubtful Rose would play.

The Heat, however, are preparing just in case with Game 1 on Monday at American Airlines Arena. Miami has been off since completing a four-game sweep on April 28 of the Milwaukee Bucks.

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Stephen A. Smith discusses whether Derrick Rose should be back on the floor for the banged-up Bulls in the second round.

It was a year ago, on April 28, 2012, when Derrick Rose suffered a knee injury that is still being felt by the organization, its fan base and the entire NBA.

There was 1:19 remaining in the fourth quarter of Game 1 of the Eastern Conference quarterfinals when Rose drove into the lane and jump-stopped. The grimace on his face was immediate as he tried to jump for a shot before crashing to the court holding his left knee.

The United Center fell silent as the worse was expected and later verified. Rose tore his ACL and would undergo surgery on May 12. The Bulls won Game 1 but would go on to lose to the eighth-seeded Philadelphia 76ers in six games.

The prognosis was for Rose to take 8-12 months to rehabilitate and the process seemed to be going according to plan as periodic reports reflected steady progress. From doing basketball drills to practicing to taking full contact to scrimmaging five-on-five starting on Feb.18, Rose appeared poised to return after the All-Star break.

But suddenly the possibility that he wouldn't return this season started to surface in stories and interviews, and now it appears almost certain he won't be back at all this season.

ESPNChicago.com's Nick Friedell talked to many of those who were present at the time of the injury, and here are their stories:

Joakim Noah

"I just remember being up like 20 points and thinking we were going to win the championship. Even when he went down, it was weird but in my mind I was like, 'He could be out for a couple weeks and we'll be alright. We'll be ready for him to come back.'

"I even remember after the game I went to the Berto Center to go get some ice and get some treatment, I never do that, I was just so into it and then when I heard the news ... it was just hard. You know how hard we work every day, so to see him go down like that was tough. Not just for us as players but for the whole city."

“

It was a dark day. It was a dark day for us. We won that playoff game but Derrick getting hurt -- I'll probably remember that day for the rest of my life.

” -- Joakim Noah

When you first saw him on the ground what were you thinking?

"I just wanted to be there. Any time one of my teammates goes down I just try to be there for them. I didn't know how bad it was going to be. My mindset was more on just finishing the game and seeing him after."

How did you find out?

"My uncle called me. I can't believe I remember all this."

What was it like when you saw him the next day?

"It was hard, man. It was hard. I don't even like talking about it to be honest with you.

"It was a dark day. It was a dark day for us. We won that playoff game but Derrick getting hurt -- I'll probably remember that day for the rest of my life."

Carlos Boozer

(Long pause) "Truthfully, it was just sad, man. I couldn't really believe it. I was hoping it wasn't that serious but it was. Seeing him cry in the locker room, that was tough because he knew what happened already. It was tough, man. It's tough to talk about."

Did you know when he went down?

"No, I didn't know. I was just hoping it wasn't that bad. Honestly, I thought it was his ankle or something and then I realized he said it was his knee, so I was just hoping it wasn't that bad to be honest."

What was that locker room like?

"It was depressing, man. It was one of the saddest locker rooms -- we just won the game -- and it was one of the saddest locker rooms I might have ever been in."

What was the next day like for you?

"Tough, man. We really just met for a couple minutes, walked through a couple things and got out of there because everybody was down still. It was kind of like a ... it was just depressing, man."

Doug Collins:

"I was right in front of our bench and I saw him come down awkwardly and I just knew what he did -- I saw the way his leg buckled -- because I had that injury. And so I knew immediately.

"... I knew he hurt his knee and I was very sad. Obviously, it changed the playoff picture in our favor. They also lost Noah in Game 3, but Derrick Rose is a shining star and a bright light in the NBA and we miss him. He plays the game the way you're supposed to play it every night. He plays to win. He's a hometown kid who loves being in Chicago and representing his city. He's got a great family. And I'm one of these guys, I want to see the best players on the floor and so I hope he's going to be healthy soon and get back out there. Will that affect us? Yeah. But that kid needs to be out there playing basketball. He's special."

Taj Gibson:

"I remember it like it was yesterday. He was in the game, we talked about the game scheme, drew up a play for him to break down the defense and probably get a running hook, running floater -- he went down the lane, got a running floater, and just came down wrong. I was hoping it wasn't even his knee. I thought it was his ankle. He always had bad ankle problems, but he hurt his knee. We got a great win but the look on everybody's face wasn't even happy about the win. We were more like hoping that he's OK. You never want to see a teammate go out like that. But just the reaction when we got the news ... most of the guys just ran in the training room and we went into the training room and you didn't see him but we saw him come out with that disappointment look on his face it was surreal and we knew that it was something serious. That's what I remember the most."

"I just remember his face when he came out of the X-ray room and everybody was just shaking their head. It was like one of those scenes -- you're there but you don't know what's going on, but you know something was bad happening. It was one of those reactions, the whole locker room was just quiet, we heard people moving around but you hardly heard people say anything. That was crazy."

What was it like the next day?

"The next day was mellow. It was like you come in, it was quiet, real mellow and quiet. The only thing you mostly heard was the basketball. Guys just came in there and we got the news about how he was and it was cool because guys understood what they had to do but at the same time we really didn't understand like, 'What's the gameplan now?' How we got to adjust, we got to draw up different plays, we got to do different things like that. But guys were still like, 'Damn.' At the same time they were like, 'What could we have done differently? Maybe the second unit could have played a little harder, we wouldn't have had to worry about putting him back in the game.'"

"It was just a lot of stuff going on but then he was like, 'You got to man up. You got to get ready for the next game.' Things like this happen every day. But it was just tough because you go through a whole year of ups and downs, ups and downs, ups and downs, and get another blow like that to your teammate, you're like, 'Wow,' that was crazy. "


Sixers guard -- and Chicago native -- Evan Turner

"I think as big an icon as D-Rose has been to basketball and in the NBA and in Chicago, you're talking about a kid that's always been admired ... I root for every Chicago kid because you're putting on for the city and you inspire the younger kids coming up, (the injury) is traumatizing to a community. Chicago is on his back so you see him go down definitely is horrible because he's a pro's pro. You like watching him, you like seeing what he does, performing, so that was hard to watch, too."

What do you remember from that moment?

"I just thought he pulled a muscle because he didn't really react. I hear when people tear an ACL they start screaming and stuff. He didn't react or anything so I said he probably just caught a cramp because he's been playing off and on and that was it. I just figured nothing bad had happened, he never really got hurt before and then when it came out he tore his ACL, I was shocked because he didn't have any reaction."

John Paxson

"What I remember was there was excitement about the playoffs starting and us feeling that we had put ourselves in a position to make a run. And then we're sitting there just a short time away from winning Game 1 and knowing that every playoff game, that's the most important game you play, so we were going to have a 1-0 advantage.

"And then watching Derrick go down -- from that moment on I was just kind of numb -- because you knew it was bad when you saw him on the floor. And then the rest of the day was going to the hospital, staying with him and around him, and understanding that it was bad. And it was hard not to think about what that meant for our basketball team, but numb's the word to describe how I felt that day."

Gar Forman

"I remember when he first went down, because he had had several injuries during the year I thought ... I didn't have a good angle so I initially thought he had landed on someone's foot or sprained an ankle, I couldn't see that there was no one around. But then when I saw it on the TV, because we have a TV where we sit, then it was scary seeing him go down with nobody around. And then I just remember leaving the hospital and driving home and it just felt numb. That was about it."

A Chicago-area sports psychologist, psychiatrist and hypnotist experienced in treating elite athletes are largely in agreement about the curious case of Derrick Rose, but their methods for helping the Bulls guard, if they were to work with him, are as fascinating as they are diverse.

For all of them, it begins with acknowledging fear as possibly a major component in Rose continuing to hold himself out a year after reconstructive knee surgery. Rose has maintained that while the knee feels strong, it's his confidence in testing the knee that remains an obstacle.

Vincent Chung, a hypnotist who has worked with professional athletes from Chicago teams as well as Olympic athletes, said the key for any athlete in that position is to get rid of "paralyzing fear."

"There are several factors when dealing with injuries and one is the fear of being re-injured," Chung said. "Fear is actually a useful emotion. It teaches people to be careful. You don't want to be fearless because then you are going to do things that are unsafe. But paralyzing fear also doesn't protect us, it actually makes it more dangerous so when Derrick is doing the acrobatic moves he does, he's in more danger of getting hurt."

To eliminate that, Chung, who received his MBA from the University of Chicago but said he became interested in hypnosis to help fellow Wall Street traders balance fear and greed, might ask Rose to associate a color with different emotions, then change the color and thus the emotion.

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DEERFIELD, Ill. -- Chicago Bulls guard Derrick Rose was officially ruled out of Game 3 of their playoff series against the Brooklyn Nets on Thursday, but coach Tom Thibodeau still refuses to shut the door on a possible return this season.

"We've said this all along," Thibodeau said. "If he's ready to come back, he's coming back. And that's no matter when it is. So if it's a week from now, great. If it's not, then that's fine too. We just got to keep moving forward."

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CHICAGO -- As Joakim Noah clomped victoriously up and down the court on his busted wheel Monday night, gritting his teeth through 25 inspired minutes of bad playoff basketball, the NBA nation turned its critical eyes to Derrick Rose sitting on the bench, resplendent in his suit, watching the game unfold around him.

Two players connected by friendship and uniform and right now, symbols of different athlete archetypes, The Selfless and The Selfish. Forget the truth, print the legend.

Once the patron saint for doing things the right way, St. Derrick of Englewood is now being flogged by fans and reporters inflamed by impatience and distrust.

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