The NBA world was stunned and saddened when an MRI Tuesday night revealed yet another tear in the meniscus of Derrick Rose's knee.
The Chicago Bulls point guard has already undergone surgery for that injury once before, and his career looks to be hanging on a precipice.
Rose was the league's MVP in 2011 and he looked primed to anchor the Bulls as a major power in the East for a decade to come. However, his body seems to be betraying him right in the middle of what should be his prime years. Rose played 81, 78, and 81 games in his first three seasons, but only 39, 10, and 46 in the three since then.
If Rose never reaches the All Pro heights he soared to in 2009-2011, he will go down as one of the biggest 'What If' careers in NBA history. Here are three others:
Len Bias
By all accounts Len Bias had the potential to become one of the greatest NBA players of all time. He was dominant at the University of Maryland, scoring over 2000 points in his four year career. The Boston Celtics took him with the second pick in the '86 draft, but a cocaine overdose killed him just days later.
Penny Hardaway
Hardaway burst onto the scene in 1993 with a 16 point, 6.6 assist, 5.4 rebound, 2.3 steal rookie season, and was one of the best point guards in basketball. However, a left knee injury saw him undergo surgery in 1998, and he never recovered. He bounced around as a veteran presence on a few teams, but only averaged more than 12 points per game once in his final eight seasons.
Greg Oden
This big man came out of Ohio State looking like he would be this generation's David Robinson, but he had to undergo microfracture surgery before ever playing a game. What hurt the most was that Portland chose Oden with the first overall pick, a spot ahead of Kevin Durant.
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