Pre-injury Derrick Rose and Russell Westbrook had extremely similar skillsets. Both were hyper athletic, ball-dominant, downhill guards who relied on their strength and speed to get to the bucket which most likely resulted in two points or a foul leading to free throws. Rose and Westbrook were also subpar jump shooters, converting less than thirty percent of their shots from beyond the arc. The two guards nullified this with their excellent free throw shooting (over 80% for both). Rose’s ascent to superstardom came before Westbrook, primarily because Rose was the lone star on a bad Chicago Bulls team while Westbrook was the second offensive option behind Kevin Durant on the budding Oklahoma City Thunder. By his third season, Rose won MVP, averaging 25 points, 7.7 assists, and 4.1 rebounds a game, leading the Bulls to 62 wins and the number one seed in the Eastern Conference. Rose is still the youngest player to be awarded MVP. The Bulls lost to the Heat in the Eastern Conference Finals, but this was attributed to the youth and lack of experience the Bulls had compared to the Heat. All the signs were there though. Rose was improving at an exceptional rate and was arguably the best point guard in the league. This was Jordan’s heir in Chicago. Then, the ACL tear happened.
After missing nearly half of the lockout-shortened season with various injuries, the Bulls still managed to capture the top seed in the East. While leading by 12 points in meaningless minutes at the end of Game 1, Rose drove to the basket and exploded off the ground for a floater and when he landed, his knee buckled, and the silence in the United Center was deafening. The Bulls lose the series, Rose misses all of the next season, plays ten games of the following season before he tears his right meniscus. Quite simply, he was never the same.
So, what does Westbrook have to do with this? Westbrook plays the EXACT same way. He plays with as much power and torques his body in so many different ways, you wonder how his body handles all of the force. He takes this long strides as he speeds toward the basket and you think that his knee may give out on that powerful plant step but it just doesn’t. But guess what? Westbrook is one of the most durable players in the league. He only missed 76 regular season games due to injury in his eleven NBA seasons. He did tear his meniscus in the playoffs when Patrick Beverly crashed into him going for a steal while Westbrook was calling a timeout after crossing half-court. He’s had three additional cleanup surgeries on that knee but he hasn’t had to miss that much time because of it.
Even now as a member of the Rockets, Westbrook still displays his amazing athleticism. He still gives it his all every single game, driving down the lane with reckless abandon and exploding for acrobatic layups or thunderous dunks daring anybody to challenge him. So what did Westbrook do differently? Why hasn’t he suffered the same litany of injuries as Rose.
There’s no good answer. A lot of it can be attributed to luck. Westbrook’s been luckier than Rose when it comes to injuries. They’ve jumped and landed thousands of times, whether it’s for a dunk, a layup, a pro-hop, or a jump shot. Rose’s body just hasn’t been able to withstand the pounding like Westbrook’s has.
Nevertheless, Rose has shown gladiator-level perseverance over his career by going through the rehab and coming back to the game, redefining his role, and changing his game to become a productive player in the NBA again. At the beginning of the 2018-19 season, Derrick Rose scored a career-high 50 points and was visibly emotional after the game proclaiming that he “worked his ass off”. And for that moment/performance, the entire NBA was happy for a player that had a long run of bad luck, but was not going to give up. Now, Derrick Rose is a highly productive sixth man in the NBA, averaging 18 points and 5 assists over the last two seasons primarily off the bench.
Westbrook will go down as the better player with his three straight seasons of averaging a triple-double and overall consistency for over a decade, but people will not forget about Derrick Rose. Rose will not be the MVP that was out of the league in five years because of injuries. Rose will be the MVP that overcame injuries and exhibited an extraordinary level of mental toughness to provide a productive second half of his career.
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