Derrick Rose, the Chicago Bulls point guard, will join Team USA for its summer training camp to prepare for the basketball World Cup, team coach Mike Krzyzewski has said.
“We expect him to be there that last week of July when we’re choosing the team in Vegas,” Krzyzewski said last week, ESPN reported. “He can’t make the team unless he’s ready to go full bore. And knowing Derrick I would think he’ll be ready, and hopefully he’ll be 100 percent.”
Rose suffered a torn meniscus injury this season after missing the 2012-2013 season after tearing his ACL.
“It’s a fluid group, so you’re always waiting to the end of the playoffs to find out contractually, physically, and family-wise who you actually have,” Krzyzewski said about the Team USA lineup. “It’s a very fluid situation.
Chicago Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau said a few weeks ago that Rose started doing contact practices.
“[It was] good,” Thibodeau told ESPN. “He’s right on schedule. So this is the next phase now. The rehab part went well. The non-contact stuff went well. So now this is the next step, which is good.”
The coach said he’s confident that Rose will come back to normal.
“The thing is, he’s had two unfortunate injuries,” Thibodeau said. “I think he’s put a lot of work into his body. So we’re optimistic that he’s going to make a complete and full recovery. Hopefully he’ll have an opportunity to play some this summer with USA Basketball and then we’ll go from there.”
“He’s really in a good place right now and he continues to train. He’s starting to play one-on-one, two-on-two,” said Bulls general manager Gar Forman, according to NBA.com. “So he’ll continue to ramp it up. And if everything goes according to plan — which up to this point it has — we’re optimistic that he’ll play with Team USA this summer and have another good summer of work and be ready to go in October.”
