The Unofficial Return

I don't think most people would be sad if every sport just did away with preseason.  That's how popular it really is.  None of it counts towards the team's achievements for the upcoming season, so why should we care?

Those thoughts will be thrown out the window tonight when the Bulls open their exhibition schedule in Indianapolis to take on the Indiana Pacers.  It's all because Derrick Rose, who turned 25 just yesterday, will be playing in a full-fledged NBA game for the first time in over 17 months.  I don't think one player's return has made so much noise since Magic Johnson's ill-fated comeback in the 1992 preseason when his HIV diagnosis was still very fresh.  If anyone wants to dispute that, I'd like to hear it.

Now obviously, we can't really count this is Rose's first official game back.  That will come at the end of the month in Miami.  We're not even going to see as much of him now as we will when the real games begin.  Tom Thibodeau plans to play him two or three times tonight for between six and eight minutes each.  It's not much of a sample size to go on considering how much he's typically played.  Still, we'll see him for half the game at most, and that will be enough time for him to show everyone that he's ready to play. 

Whether he'll be his familiar explosive self is not clear, but his mere presence has made this the most anticipated game of the entire NBA preseason.  The Bulls are lucky that it involves them.  Plus, this is the first league action we'll be seeing since the NBA Finals ended, so the right cards came into play here.  The NBA has to be excited about this.  It's the perfect preview to what promises to be another exciting season.

There will be other anticipated games during the preseason, most notably, the game in Rio de Janeiro.  That will a nice preview of what will happen there during the next Summer Olympics.  For now, let's welcome Rose back.  True, it's not in Chicago, but we can feel his return.  So can Adidas, whose profits from this will increase just as much as our interest in Bulls basketball.