Derrick Rose, the youngest MVP in league history who is on the comeback trail after missing the entire 2012-13 season, sat out the first NBA game played in South America on Sunday with a sore left knee that disappointed thousands of Brazilian fans who came to see the Bulls-Wizards preseason game.
The Bulls defeated the Wizards, 83-81, but the bigger story was Rose missing the game because of soreness on his surgically repaired knee that left 13,635 fans at the HSBC Arena in Rio de Janeiro unhappy.
Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau justified Rose's absence by saying to Yahoo! Sports: ''We wanted to see where he was today, but he wasn't as well as we would have liked. He still had the soreness. So we anticipated giving him time off. We view our training camp as the entire month. So if he needs a day, or a couple of days we'll do that.''
Brazilian fans were desperate to see the Bulls superstar show his moves on the court that they chanted his name late in the game in hopes that the Bulls coach would eventually relent. But Thibodeau insisted that the team was looking to protect its star point guard.
''In training camp when guys get sore, you usually rest them,'' he said. ''You are always concerned with injuries or soreness. We knew coming into the season he's coming off a major injury.'
The Bulls hope that Rose will stay healthy this season so that they can challenge the two-time defending champion Miami Heat in the playoffs.
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