ESPN

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."

CHICAGO -- Philadelphia 76ers coach Doug Collins said it is important for his team to focus on closing out the Chicago Bulls in their first-round series on Tuesday.

The No. 8-seed 76ers, who haven’t won a playoff series since 2003, lead the top-seeded Bulls 3-1 heading into Tuesday’s Game 5.

“You can’t be in one of those human nature games where you get into a tight game and you get down six or eight or whatever, and your mind starts playing tricks on you,” Collins said after his team’s shootaround on Tuesday morning. “ ‘Well, we’ve always got Game 6. We’ve always got Game 7.’ You can’t approach it with that idea that you’ve got three games to win one. That would be very dangerous.”

76ers guard Evan Turner said he is approaching Game 5 as a must-win situation.

“Every game is must-win because you want to win the next game and take advantage of it,” said Turner, who has averaged 14 points and 6.3 rebounds in the series. “You don’t worry about Game 6 or 7. You worry about Game 5.”

(Read full post)

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.

It was obvious Saturday that the Philadelphia 76ers' Evan Turner wasn't interested in winning friends at the United Center.

He already was being booed every time he touched the ball for stating that the Miami Heat would be a more dangerous opponent than the Chicago Bulls, and then he started getting physical.

Turner landed a hard foul on Joakim Noah with 4:36 left in the third quarter. As the foul was being called, Carlos Boozer got his arm tangled up with Turner's. More players got involved and Derrick Rose, Rip Hamilton and Elton Brand all received technical fouls.

CHICAGO -- Chicago Bulls fans must have been reading the stories about Evan Turner's playoff preference lately.

Turner, a Chicago native, was booed when he entered Saturday's Game 1 of the Eastern Conference quarterfinals and booed when he touched the ball after stating he thought the Miami Heat were a tougher matchup than the Bulls.

Turner later said he meant no disrespect.

A St. Joseph High School grad, Turner was not without his supporters who stood and clapped after he scored early in the second quarter.

Nick Friedell enters the Bulls' chat room at 1 p.m. to talk about the first-round series against the 76ers, and whether Evan Turner fired up the Bulls with his comments.

Submit questions here and come back for the chat.

Philadelphia 76ers guard Evan Turner said Thursday he meant no disrespect to the Chicago Bulls when he said his team would match up better with the Bulls than the Miami Heat in the playoffs.

Read the entire story.

INDIANAPOLIS -- Philadelphia 76ers guard Evan Turner wants to face the Chicago Bulls in a first-round series.

Read the full story.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- Philadelphia 76ers guard Evan Turner will officially begin feeling the impact of the NBA lockout after Saturday.

"Today is the last day (for my paychecks)," said Turner, who was visiting his former AAU teammate Sam Maniscalco at Illinois' scrimmage Saturday. "Then, I'll start taking donations."

Read the entire story.

Evan Turner grew up cheering for the Bulls, but he isn't sure that his hometown team has the enough good fortune left to land LeBron James this summer.

"I honestly don't know," Turner said, when asked where he thought James would land during free agency. "I don't know how lucky Chicago is to get two of the greatest players to play there within 15-20 years of each other, but if he does I think he'll like it here. Chicago is the greatest city in the world and it will be fun."

The Ohio State star admits that it will be tough to still cheer for the Bulls once his own pro career starts.

"I'll always be a fan of the Chicago sports," he said. "But whatever team I go to, I'm focused on them right now. I won't be rooting for [the Bulls] when we play them."

Plenty of other people will be though, especially if James lands in the Windy City. A lot of rookies think that when all is said and done Chicago will be James' final destination.

"Chicago," Syracuse standout Wes Johnson said when I asked the LeBron question. "I don't know, I'm just thinking Chicago. They keep saying New York and Chicago, I'm saying Chicago."

Xavier guard Jordan Crawford wasn't as strong in that belief, but he was a Chicago proponent as well.

"I don't know where he'll end up," Crawford said. "But you talk about what would be nice -- if he went to Chicago with Derrick Rose. That would be nice."

The rookies scoffed at the notion that James and Derrick Rose wouldn't be able to play together in the same backcourt.

"I think he'll be able to play with D. Rose just fine," Johnson said. "The way he can [dish] the basketball, man, yeah he'll be able to play with D. Rose. You see LeBron average almost a triple double he can find a way to play with D. Rose.

Crawford agreed.

"They both share the ball and they both love making assists so they'll complement each other great," he said.

Johnson has gotten a first-hand scouting report on James from his college buddy, Minnesota Timberwolves point guard Jonny Flyyn.

"He said it's not real," Flynn said of facing James. "Just seeing him on the court and seeing him in person, how big he is and how fast he runs. It's like a machine basically. It's like a robot out there."

Crawford and James go way back: Crawford became a national celebrity last summer when he dunked on James at the MVP's summer camp. It's a memory that he is reminded of almost every day. If he had a dollar for every time somebody asked him about the dunk he would be a wealthy, wealthy man.

"I'd be rich," he said.

How much exactly?

"I don't know," he said. "It would be up there, though. I wouldn't have to worry about ... I could spend a little bit of cash, if I had a dollar for every time [people asked]."

Line of the day: Fresno State swingman Paul George recently worked out for the Bulls and had this to say when asked about the possibility coming to Chicago team which featured James: "He'll probably take all my minutes, but we'll be winning."