ESPN

DEERFIELD, Ill. -- Chicago Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau dressed for the first practice of the rest of the playoffs in his regular black Adidas sweatsuit, like a mourning Ben Stiller in "The Royal Tenenbaums."

"Chas Tenenbaum" Thibodeau's get-up mirrored the mood of the franchise, the city, and most of the National Basketball Association: Funereal.

The Bulls coach, who is the best coach to be hated by about half his fanbase, was quick to remind everyone that Sunday wasn't a wake. Not for the Bulls and not for Derrick Rose's career. Don't send flowers to the Berto Center. Don't sit shiva for Rose's torn anterior cruciate ligament.

Thibodeau preaches focusing on the present, and he rejects negativity from outside sources, and his team still has a job to do.

Read the entire story.

ESPN's SportsNation asked the questions Bulls fans are asking themselves:

Should Derrick have been in the game at the time of his injury?

How far can the Bulls go without Derrick?

Click here to vote.

DEERFIELD, Ill. -- Despite losing superstar point guard Derrick Rose for the rest of the season with torn ACL, Chicago Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau isn't about to let his team feel sorry for itself now.

"I think we all feel awful for him," Thibodeau said after Sunday's practice. "Derrick's not only a great player, he's a great teammate, he's a great person, but it's not a death sentence. It's not a death sentence for him, it's not a death sentence for our team. He's going to come back. He'll come back better than ever. It's just the way it is and we've got to deal with."

Read the entire story.

CHICAGO -- The Philadelphia 76ers' confidence in their ability to defeat the Chicago Bulls in their first-round Eastern Conference quarterfinals playoff series didn’t grow overnight with the news of Derrick Rose's season-ending injury.

The 76ers said Sunday they know firsthand just how good the Bulls can still be without their best player. The 76ers lost to the Bulls 89-80 without Rose in Chicago on March 17. C.J. Watson started at point guard for the Bulls in that win and had a team-high 20 points.

Rose played in just 39 of the 66-regular season games due to a variety of injuries, and the Bulls were 32-7 with him and 18-9 without him.

“One of the things I shared with our guys is [Rose] missed 26 or 27 games this year,” 76ers coach Doug Collins said after Sunday’s practice. “They have played without him. It’s not going to be that he’s not missed any games, and all of a sudden now, ‘What are they going to do?’ They’ve won some games without him. They’ve won some big games without him.”

Read the entire story.

A Nike shoe designer mocked Derrick Rose's season-ending ACL injury on Twitter on Sunday, igniting a firestorm of criticism on the social media website.

Jason Petrie, who designed LeBron James' signature sneakers, tweeted that Rose should have signed with Nike after the Chicago Bulls superstar tore his ACL in the final minutes of Game 1 of Chicago's Eastern Conference quarterfinal series against the Philadelphia 76ers.

"You got one guy only getting stronger, and one guy breaking down before our very eyes. You chose poorly Pooh... #shouldasignedwithNIKE #GWS," Petrie wrote, referring also to James and Heat's 33-point Game 1 victory over the New York Knicks.

Read the entire story.

An injury-plagued 2011-12 campaign culminated in a season-ending injury for Chicago Bulls guard Derrick Rose on Saturday. In the final minutes of the first game of the playoff series against the Philadelphia 76ers, Rose went to the floor when his left knee gave way. The suspected culprit, a torn anterior cruciate ligament (ACL), was later confirmed by MRI. Rose is done for the remainder of the season but the consequences will extend beyond that time frame. The likely timetable for Rose's recovery will undoubtedly affect his availability for the summer Olympics and even threatens the start of his next NBA season.

A look back at the video of Rose's last few seconds of play Saturday suggests the injury happened not when he went up in the air, nor when he landed, but rather in the jump stop he made just prior to attempting to dish the ball off to teammate Carlos Boozer. Rose moves into the lane and jumps to his right, landing as if to square up before taking a shot, and his left knee can be seen quickly collapsing inward (valgus). As Rose goes upward, he appears to have no power and is off balance, then opts to try to pass the ball outside and lands askew. His left leg comes down and as he tries to step it does not support him and he goes to the ground, holding his knee. There is no doubt he is in pain, but how much is physical discomfort and how much is exasperation at this latest devastating blow is unclear. Perhaps Rose knew what everyone in the suddenly silent arena feared; this indeed was the end of a cruel and tortuous season where his days missed due to injury nearly equaled games played.

Read the entire story here.

It was the 26h of December and the Chicago Bulls, who just played on Christmas Day were about to tip off their second game in two days. Richard Hamilton, the veteran guard who had come to the Bulls to be the final piece of a championship puzzle, told me to listen up.

This season, Hamilton said, was going to be like no other. Teams would need to be more patient than ever before, players would, too; they were about to put their bodies through hell. Not just the three days in three nights, but the four games in five nights, the seven games in 10 nights, the weeks without practice and necessary rest and recovery.


Read the full story.

CHICAGO -- Like everyone else is the Bulls' locker room Saturday afternoon, John Lucas felt awful about what had just happened to Derrick Rose. He felt terribly for his friend and teammate. In the short term, though, now Lucas and C.J. Watson will be looked upon to provide a boost to the Chicago lineup.

"We just got to respond," Lucas said. "Bounce back like we did all year. We responded to every challenge this year. Lu being hurt, Derrick being hurt, C.J. being out, we all stepped up. That's our mentality."

With that in mind, let's take a look at some stats which were compiled by Ryan Feldman of ESPN Stats and Research.

-- Nick Friedell

Next level: With Derrick Rose out, the Bulls will have to turn to C.J. Watson to fill in most of the void. And that may not be a good thing. The Bulls were 11.6 points better per 100 possessions with Watson off the court. They were much better offensive and defensively without Watson.

Next level: While C.J. Watson will replace Derrick Rose as the starting point guard, John Lucas may have the biggest impact on the Bulls with Rose out. The Bulls were 11 points better per 100 possessions with Lucas on the court this season. The difference was on the defensive end, where Bulls opponents scored 10 points fewer per 100 possessions with Lucas on the court.

Next level: C.J. Watson may replace Derrick Rose as the Bulls starting point guard, but John Lucas may be the better option to pick up the slack. With Lucas on the court this season, the Bulls were 16 points better per 100 possessions than they were with Watson on the court. The biggest difference was defensively, where the Bulls allowed just 87.5 points per 100 possessions with Lucas on the court this season.

Chicago Bulls guard Derrick Rose suffered a torn ACL in his left knee and will miss the rest of the season, the team announced Saturday. Rose suffered the injury while trying to leap off his left foot in the lane with 1:22 left in Saturday's playoff game against the Philadelphia 76ers.

Our 5-on-5 crew weighs in what the loss of the reigning MVP means to the Bulls.

Read the full story.

CHICAGO -- Chicago Bulls players came to the defense of their head coach Saturday when asked if Tom Thibodeau should have had Derrick Rose on the court at the time he tore his left ACL late in their playoff-opening win over the Philadelphia 76ers.

Read the entire story.

CHICAGO -- A slim specter of hope turned sharply to the worst thought imaginable for Bulls fans late Saturday afternoon -- how do they survive without Derrick Rose?

An MRI revealed a torn ACL in the left knee of the reigning MVP, sustained with 1:22 left in the Bulls' 103-91 victory over the Philadelphia 76ers in Game 1 of their first-round playoff series.


Read the full story.

CHICAGO -- Derrick Rose's championship aspirations weren't the only thing that crumbled to the ground Saturday afternoon when his left knee gave out. His dreams of winning an Olympic gold medal did as well.

Although nothing has been officially announced, Rose almost certainly will have to miss the London Olympics now because of the ACL tear he suffered Saturday. Rose has held to the claim that he wanted to win a championship in his hometown of Chicago over winning a gold medal, but Olympic glory was always a very close second.

Two years ago in Las Vegas during Team USA's training camp for the world championships, I asked Rose what it would mean to become one of the faces of the national team.

"That would be an honor," he said. "It would be an honor even to be on the team. But to be a face of the USA team, it would mean a lot. A lot of hard work I've been putting in this game. A lot of sacrifice and dedication. It would let me know that I can put my goals up even higher."

As for many kids, winning a gold medal was something Rose always dreamed about.

"It's a big dream," he said at the time. "Just looking at when they were playing a while back, me and my mom were [watching] them [in Beijing]. We were up around 3 a.m., 4 a.m. or something like that when the games used to come on. They used to come on real late in the morning, and we were up watching the games. And I know that everybody else was watching them, too. Hopefully when I make the team, or whenever I do make the team ... everybody will be watching me. As I was up watching them when I was younger."

Now Rose will have to focus on getting back on the floor and making the team four years from now. He will work hard with his trainer Rob McClanaghan in rehab, but it will be a tough road for the 23-year-old MVP. He wanted to represent his country this summer and has been talking about the chance for several years. Earlier this week, he was exchanging some good-natured trash talk with teammate Joakim Noah, who is expected to play for France this summer. Now Noah and the rest of Rose's teammates will have to cheer him up while they play in London.

CHICAGO -- Joakim Noah was speechless.

He knew the questions were coming. He knew what had happened. He just wasn't sure what he wanted to come out of his mouth.

Still in shock with what had just happened to Derrick Rose, Noah sat in front of his locker with the same dazed look that all of his teammates had.

"He's more than just a basketball player to me," Noah said, minutes after watching his friend and teammate crumple to the ground as his knee gave out. "I consider Derrick like a little brother and to see him hurting is never good. But I know he's a warrior and I know he's going to get back as soon as he can."

In almost three years on the Bulls' beat, this was, understandably, the most disconsolate locker room I've ever seen. Players knew how hard Rose had worked to get back in the lineup. After he'd missed 27 games already this season, they knew how badly he wanted to stay on the floor. Now they know they'll have to play without him for a long time. In talking and listening to them, it was if they knew bad news was coming before word of the torn ACL actually became official.

"I was like, 'Oh, here we go again,'" Bulls forward Taj Gibson said. "It's been up and down all year long. And it sucks because he was just getting back. He was looking good, looking good in practice [Friday] and he had such a good game, defensively and offensively. It's tough to lose your leader."

Some of Rose's teammates had already started praying for him after the game, but the tension and sadness in the locker room were palpable. Just like fans, they feared the worst. And now the worst has become official.

"It's tough," Bulls forward Carlos Boozer said. "It seems like he just can't catch a break. We're all praying for him, hoping it's not that bad. It seemed pretty bad, but we're hoping for the best in this situation. I just feel for him, man. He really can't catch a break this season."

The agony for the Bulls is that the injury overshadowed a great Game 1 performance. The team played very well throughout most of the day, but once Rose went down nothing else mattered. Misery and disbelief emanated from all corners. The Bulls knew there was nothing they could do to help their fallen leader. Now they must find a way to cope without him.

CHICAGO -- Philadelphia 76ers guard and Chicago native Evan Turner said he wasn’t affected by the abundance of boos he received in the 76ers’ 103-91 loss to the Chicago Bulls in the first game of their Eastern Conference quarterfinal series on Saturday.

Turner became public enemy No. 1 among Bulls’ fans recently after saying he would prefer to face the Bulls instead of the Miami Heat in the first round because they were a better matchup. Turner said he meant no disrespect to the Bulls, but their fans showed Saturday they aren’t quick to forgive.

Read the entire story.