Joakim Noah: Derrick Rose critics need to ‘shut up’

Derrick Rose has not yet officially ruled out his return in the 2013 postseason, but Chicago Bulls fans have grown incredibly impatient. The team has done well in his absence, earning a respectable seed in the playoffs and knocking off the Brooklyn Nets in the first round. The Bulls also defeated the Miami Heat in Game 1 of their series on Monday night.

But there are few who believe Chicago can win a title without Rose on the floor, which has led to radio stations encouraging fans to send angry messages to the star point guard. Joakim Noah wants that nonsense to stop.

“Derrick’s a brother,” Noah said after his double-double against the Heat, via ESPNChicago.com. “And to see him go through this is tough, but at the end of the day it’s really funny how quick people are to judge. But people don’t know what it’s like to lead a team, especially after you tore your ACL.

“If you tore your ACL and you have to be the starting point guard and have the expectations that Derrick has, then maybe you can judge, but everybody who hasn’t been in that situation before should really shut up because I feel like it’s just so unfair to him and to this team. We’re fighting, and everybody’s going to just s— on somebody who’s been giving so much to this organization. It’s crazy to me.”

Rose tore his ACL in the playoffs last April, and it is not uncommon for athletes to take at least a full year to recover from an injury of that magnitude. Bulls fans became optimistic in March when he was reportedly cleared to play, but his status for this series still remains “up in the air.”

Like I said before, there is no way Rose would rather be watching from the bench than playing. If this was early on in the regular season and he had already been rehabbing for more than a year, you could maybe start to wonder. Who wants to watch from the sidelines during the playoffs? To think that Rose is milking his injury at this point in the season is just ridiculous.