The Biggest what-if in the NBA is: Would D. Rose have been the best NBA player before his injury?
People often discuss what-ifs. For example, what if Len Bias had never died from a drug overdose and had played with the Celtics? Or what if Bill Russell had not been traded to the Celtics? But arguably the biggest what-if is whether D. Rose could have been one of the best NBA players before his injury.
After his injury, he just wasn’t the same. He wasn’t putting up nearly as many average points per game, with his highest average being 25 the year before his injury and his lowest being 5.6 just a couple of years before he retired, stats found on statmuse.com. Based on these stats, you can see how much he digressed in skill. “As a No. 1 overall pick, he took the league by storm during his first four seasons, but he never won a title, and his post-injury numbers look much different than those early years,” Bleach reports. This shows how his stats went downhill after his injury. He also wasn’t able to stay healthy for an entire season. )
The average height in the NBA is 6’6; D. Rose is 6’3, which puts him at a disadvantage. So people saying that he could be one of the best shows his true skill even being shorter than most of the other players. “Once considered the future of the NBA, Rose’s potential as one of the league’s all-time greats was undeniable. When he entered the league in 2008 as the first overall pick by the Chicago Bulls, his blend of speed, agility, and basketball IQ quickly set him apart from his peers. By 2011, he became the youngest player in history to win the NBA MVP award at just 22 years old, and it seemed like the sky was the limit” Ballerstatus.com. This just shows how amazing D. Rose once was.
In the first game of the 2012 playoffs, he tore his ACL. This means that out of the 16 years he played, he got injured in only his first four years. If he had already won MVPs in his first three years, imagine what he could have done if he had never gotten injured and continued to improve. “Unfortunately, Rose’s meteoric rise came to an abrupt halt. In the first game of the 2012 playoffs, Rose tore his ACL, an injury that would begin a long and grueling battle to stay on the court. Over the next several seasons, Rose suffered knee injuries and surgeries that robbed him of his explosiveness and consistency” Ballerstatus.com. The initial injury led to many other problems in his future seasons, limiting his ability to gain skills more efficiently. Looking at his potential early on in his career, imagine the skill and abilities he would’ve had for the rest of the seasons. Rose retired on September 26, 2024. Nobody knows if he will make it to the Hall of Fame, but many fans believe he should.
The information provided proves how much of a legend he is. He would have been one of the greats. All this makes you realize how good he would have been, and just imagine the skill he would have had if it wasn’t for the injury. What if?
