It's been nearly 10 years since Derrick Rose tore his ACL in the 2012 NBA playoffs, and former Chicago Bulls teammate Joakim Noah still remembers the moment vividly.
On the latest episode of Zach Lowe's "The Lowe Post" podcast, Noah compared the feeling of learning about Rose's season-ending injury to how he felt following the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
"There are moments in your life where you just know when it happened, like you know exactly what you were doing," Noah said. "You know exactly where you were. And when I found out that Derrick tore his ACL, like I remember the smells, I remember who I was with, I remember where ... I remember everything. Almost like the same feeling - I had the same feeling when I saw the plane hit the tower."
Noah continued: "People will be like, 'Oh he's (expletive) crazy for saying (expletive). No, I'm telling you how I felt. This is how I felt. I had the same feeling when I saw the plane hit the towers when I heard that."
Rose tore his ACL in Game 1 of the Bulls' first-round playoff series against the Philadelphia 76ers. Chicago, entering the 2012 postseason as the Eastern Conference's No. 1 seed, then lost Noah to an ankle injury in Game 3 before dropping the series 4-2.
"I really felt we were gonna win a championship," Noah said. "(Rose) represented that much hope to us. Every time he stepped onto the court, we felt like we had the most special player in the world. So that's a lot of hope to carry on one person."
