Derrick Rose's laugh briefly replaced his sheepish smile when asked if the freak injury he suffered Monday morning had come as payback for giving up Gummi Bears.
A self-described sweets freak in college, Rose needed 10 stitches to close a gash in his left forearm after he said he rolled onto a knife while eating an apple in bed. Rose missed Monday's Bulls practice but said he planned to play Tuesday night against the Knicks unless doctors held him out. Either way, he cemented a place in Chicago sports lore among all-time wacky injuries.
"Mama always said don't eat in bed, right?" guard Larry Hughes deadpanned. "We'll make fun of him a little bit."
The Bulls can do so because Rose avoided serious injury with the weird mishap. The rookie guard wore a large gauze bandage but also shot baskets in sweats after practice, and coach Vinny Del Negro said Rose would play against the NBA team from, well, the Big Apple.
"It was a silly incident," Rose said. "I was cutting up some food, and I laid on a knife getting lazy in bed. I went to get a bottle of water, came back, forgot the knife was there, then sat down and sliced my arm.
"I panicked when it first happened and called my trainer. It was painful, but I should be all right."
Athletic trainer Fred Tedeschi drove Rose to Highland Park Hospital shortly after 8 a.m., and doctors closed the wound. Rose said he would have the stitches for 10 to 14 days.
"It's an unfortunate thing, but he'll be fine," Del Negro said. "He could have practiced, but it was more precautionary to let him relax a little after the incident and get some rest. Thank goodness it's not serious."
