Luol Deng ‘almost in tears’ about Derrick Rose’s injury

Luol Deng admitted that he almost cried after finding out that his former Chicago Bulls teammate Derrick Rose will miss the rest of the season due to injury.

Luol Deng might not be a teammate of Derrick Rose’s any longer, but the Miami Heat small forward was still shaken up by the news released Tuesday that Rose will miss the remainder of the season due to a torn meniscus.

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Deng admitted to the South Florida Sun Sentinel that he nearly cried upon hearing about Rose’s latest injury problem.

"“Honestly,” Deng said on Wednesday, according to the Sun Sentinel, “I was almost in tears. It’s different when you know the guy that well.”[…]“He’s a tough guy. I think he’ll be fine,” said Deng, who was dealt by the Bulls to the Cleveland Cavaliers in January 2014 and then signed with the Miami Heat as a free agent last summer. “But it’s just three seasons in a row. He wants to do what he loves, but things keep happening. And honestly, a lot of people would deal with it differently. He just keeps going and keeps working hard.”"

Deng’s current teammate Dwyane Wade added that he was “sick for (Rose)” when he heard the news.

The Bulls star has received tremendous support from NBA players since the injury — LeBron James, John Wall and Jamal Crawford are among the players that tweeted their well wishes — which truly indicates the impact Rose has had on the game.

What Rose has had to endure since his 2010-11 MVP season is remarkable. He missed the remainder of the 2012 playoffs and the entire 2012-13 season after tearing his ACL in the first round of the 2012 playoffs. He then only played 10 regular season games during the 2013-14 season before he tore his right knee meniscus and was forced to miss the remainder of the season. That brings us to this latest meniscus, which effectively means that Rose will have missed four straight postseasons due to injury.

One can only hope that Rose is able to recover from this and see his bad injury luck reversed going forward.

Rose was averaging 18.4 points (40.7 percent shooting from the floor, 28.7 percent shooting from beyond the arc), 5.0 assists and 3.1 rebounds per game this season.