Chicago Bulls' Derrick Rose Has 'Too Much Faith' in God to Worry About Injuries
Derrick Rose is putting his faith in God, not a protective face mask to keep him from getting injured on the basketball court.
After taking an elbow to the face last season, the 27-year-old Chicago Bulls point guard had to undergo orbital surgery in order to repair an injury to his eye socket. Since then, he's been wearing a protective face mask that he's recently taken off and is trusting God with the results.
"I love the mask but I just felt like with the mask, I got too much faith to be hiding behind something. So I just took it off," Rose told the Chicago Sun Times. "If I was to get hit again, of course I wouldn't want to, but it would be out of my hands. It's not in my control anymore. So I just took it off and put it in God's hands."
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Rose has been known to make mention of his belief in God, even in frustrating moments. After one previous loss to the Chicago Bulls that could have been turned around if Rose had not missed free throws, the guard focused on God being in control.
"It's definitely tough. All I can say is, I guess God does everything for a reason," he said after the loss in 2012. "To miss both and let my team down, the only thing I can do is learn from it."
Rose's professional basketball career has been plagued with injury after he won the league MVP title in the 2010-2011 season. After tearing his ACL in the 2012 NBA playoffs, a surgery required him to miss the 2012-2013 season. Still, Rose chose to trust in God despite the troubling moment.
"I know God has a plan and he does things for a reason, so hopefully the reason is for me to get stronger and come back a better player," Rose said after the surgery, according to CSN Chicago.
When the injured star missed the entire 2012-2013 season, he let God determine the date of his return to the court.
"It could be tomorrow and I could feel like I could play the next game," he said in a 2013 interview with CSN Chicago. "Nobody knows but God."
Although he returned for the 2013-2014 season, Rose injured his right knee which required surgery and sidelined him for the rest of the season. And when Rose came back in the 2014-2015 season, he missed a large number of games due to his injuries.
"There's nobody to be angry at … I gave up my life to God a long time ago, so all this is out of my control," Rose said last year, according to the Chicago Tribune. "I'm just trying to take my time, listen to my body, cheer on my teammates while I'm out, just try to better myself as a person, a basketball player, a businessman and a teammate."
