If anyone can relate to what Derrick Rose is going through, it’s Bill Walton.
Long before there was Rose, Penny Hardaway, Grant Hill, Brandon Roy, or any other promising NBA star whose career was derailed by injuries, there was Walton.
Walton was a three-time college player of the year and led UCLA to two national championships. He was drafted No. 1 overall by the Portland Trail Blazers in 1974 and led them to the NBA title in 1977, where he won Finals MVP. He won league MVP in 1978 and then won a second championship as a sixth man for the Celtics in 1986. But Walton struggled to play a full season and frequently missed multiple games or even entire seasons because of foot, ankle and other injuries.
While calling the UCLA-Washington game for ESPN2 Wednesday, Walton offered some advice to Rose, who was just diagnosed with a torn meniscus in his right knee.
“I’m the most injured person in the history of sports,” said Walton. “I missed more than nine and a half full seasons of a 14-year NBA career, a career that was ruined by structural, congenital defects.”
Walton then went into what the injuries do to a person mentally.
“It destroys your life. It devastates everything about you. So what you have to learn is that in a world of challenges, you have to do what you can. You figure it out and then you go out and you get the job done. You have to change on a constant basis. That’s the way life is.”
And his advice to Rose?
“Derrick’s going to have to find a new way. But he’s so young. Take a year off. Go to Hawaii, become a yogi master and just come back and then start up again.”
We seriously doubt that Rose will move to Hawaii and take up yoga, but it’s the thought that counts. Rose is no doubt spiritually and mentally defeated by his latest setback. Maybe he needs to take some time away and get away from the game so he can feel better before he attempts to come back. And after all that he has gone through, his comments about trying to preserve his body make a whole lot more sense.
