Derrick Rose Has The Sympathy Of Dwyane Wade

Last season, the Chicago Bulls spent most of the year preparing for a hypothetical winner-take-all-battle against the Miami Heat in the Eastern Conference Finals, but that series never happened because star guard Derrick Rose tore his ACL during the opening round of the playoffs. The Heat rolled on and prevailed over the Oklahoma City Thunder in the NBA Finals, but Miami guard Dwyane Wade still wished Rose would have been healthy enough to go in the playoffs, and he expressed his sympathy for Rose as well during a recent interview with David Kaplan of CSN-Chicago:

"You just feel bad for him," Wade said of Rose. "We all deal with injuries and every time you deal with an injury, you hope it's not the big one. You hope it won't end your season. So to see a guy like D-Rose, who was battling injuries all year, minor injuries, and then it took its toll. And it was sad to see."

"We didn't want to see it and we want to play the Bulls. We want to play the best teams," Wade said. "We want him and his family to be fine, so to hear he was in high spirits and doing well, outside looking in, as a fan of the game, I'm excited for him."

Rose is on the road to recovery and his rehab is reportedly going well after successful surgery during the offseason. Maybe this year, NBA fans will get to see that Bulls vs. Heat playoff battle.

For more, stick with SB Nation Chicago. For more on the Bulls, head over to Blog a Bull. For additional news, notes and analysis from around the NBA, visit SB Nation's NBA news hub.