NBA star Derrick Rose leaves federal court in Los Angeles Wednesday, Oct. 19, 2016. Jurors cleared Rose and two friends in a lawsuit that accused them of gang raping his ex-girlfriend when she was incapacitated from drugs or alcohol. The jury reached the verdict Wednesday in Los Angeles federal court after hearing dramatically different accounts of the August 2013 sexual encounter. (AP Photo/Nick Ut)
Derrick Rose will likely have no more than just a few practices to get ready for opening night with the New York Knicks.
Rose and two friends were cleared Wednesday in a $21.5 million lawsuit that accused them of raping his ex-girlfriend, jurors in Los Angeles needing less than four hours to reach their decision. Rose has been away from the team while dealing with the trial, and the Knicks are ready to welcome him back with open arms.
“It’s a tough thing he went through,” Knicks coach Jeff Hornacek said in Boston on Wednesday night, before New York beat the Celtics in a preseason matchup. “But now it’s over. Now he can focus on basketball. I know that’s what Derrick wants, to get back to do. We’re just all glad it’s done with and now he can get back here and focus on basketball.”
Hornacek said he did not expect Rose to play in the preseason finale in Brooklyn on Thursday, though did not completely rule it out. Rose and the Knicks open the season Tuesday in Cleveland, when the Cavaliers will get their championship rings — and at the same time, next door at Progressive Field, the Indians will host Game 1 of the World Series.
Teams traditionally don’t practice coming off a back-to-back, so that would suggest the Knicks might only have three practices with their point guard before the opener. Rose played in one preseason game.
“We have to get him up to speed on some of the things we’ve put in,” Hornacek said.
