The Chicago Bulls remain committed to star guard Derrick Rose, with executive vice president John Paxson telling ESPN he again will be "a great player."
In his most substantive talk with the media since Rose suffered his second season-ending knee injury in as many seasons, Paxson added "we do believe that Derrick's going to be a great player again. We can't promise anybody that, but that's a belief of ours because we know Derrick well enough and we think he's going to work hard enough. But the challenge always is building a team and putting the group of players together -- in this case it might be more about building with Derrick, as opposed to saying, 'OK, Derrick, you got to shoulder all the burden.' But that's OK."
Before Paxson took to the podium for Tuesday's press conference, Rose was seen walking through the halls of the United Center without crutches and appears well on his way to regaining his health.
"We know how badly he wants it and is committed to getting better," Paxson told ESPN. "We expect him to get back to form because those last few games he did play we saw him get his rhythm, all those type things. It's hard to go through these things, though. It's hard to go through a significant player having a season-ending injury, and it's difficult to go through a situation where you've made a significant move of a player that has great importance to you as an organization and you have great respect and admiration for. But the Derrick question -- we believe he'll be a terrific player for us when he suits up next year."
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