After a season of anticipating the return of Chicago Bulls' guard Derrick Rose, it appears that the former MVP has regained his stride and is ready to get back to performing at an elite level.
On Saturday Rose had his first practice of training camp and not only was he aggressive with his play but was enthusiastic about the thought of returning to the floor this upcoming season.
"I got confidence in my (surgically repaired left) knee," Rose said. "There's no testing anymore. It's going out there and playing hard and attacking."
During scrimmages on Saturday Rose rejoined teammates Jimmy Butler, Luol Deng, Carlos Boozer and Joakim Noah, while playing full-on at full speed after being cleared for full contact last spring.
"He attacked all day, in fact from the start," Bulls' coach Tom Thibodeau said. "He made that clear."
This is certainly not the first time Rose addressed his injury this offseason, as given by his comments a couple weeks ago while in tour through Asia he felt he was back to "100 percent" and ready to face the challenges of the upcoming season.
"I think I am a 100 percent," Rose said. "I'm doing almost everything. I'm squatting, running, lifting almost every other day, just being back on the court after you have an ACL injury, you're kind of hesitant at first about how you step, what way you should step, learning how to run, accelerate, accelerate while you run and while you're slowing down. For me, I'm reacting right now where all I have to think about is if I have to get to a spot, I'm going to get there no matter what. It kind of feels good having that feeling again."
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