By Marc Anthony Costanza

In Sunday’s huge 109-103 win against the Golden State Warriors, newly-acquired Minnesota Timberwolf Derrick Rose appeared in his first NBA game since February 7 of this year with the Cleveland Cavaliers.

There was some built-up drama for the former MVP’s return, mainly because of the criticism he has undergone with all the injuries he has endured throughout his career. Talking to ESPN, Rose shared his thoughts on the whole situation and didn’t hold back on his sentiments.

“This is how I feel about it,” Rose said. “You could have your perspective on me, as far as I’m a bum, I can’t play, I can’t shoot, this and that, all right, cool, I have no hard feelings with that. I’m cool with that. [If] that’s how you feel, that’s how you feel, but at the same time, I don’t need your [expletive] validation. I know who I am, I know what type of player I am. So you respect that and I respect that [point of view] and we should be good.”

Despite Rose blocking out his critics and having high confidence going into Sunday’s game, the player didn’t have much to show for it. He was only able to play for seven minutes, and in that time, went 1-5 on FG attempts, scoring only two points. The Timberwolves, however, would not suffer too badly. Andrew Wiggins and Karl-Anthony Towns both put on outstanding performances. Wiggins dropped 23 points while Towns collected a double-double.

What does this performance mean for Derrick Rose?

Not too much emphasis should be placed on this one game. He hasn’t played in a little over a month, and the path to get back on the court has been rough to say the least.

There were a lot of expectations with him at the beginning of the season with the Cavaliers, where he was brought in to give depth to the bench. To Rose and the organization’s disappointment, the former Chicago Bull suffered an ankle injury. After going down, Rose was in a bad place mentally and decided to take a brief sabbatical from the team. He eventually returned to play a few games, but the Cavs would ultimately trade him to the Utah Jazz, who then put Rose on waivers.

I know Derrick Rose claims to be going into the team with high confidence, unbothered by all the criticism, but I can’t help but think that his experiences in the past few years are still taking a toll on him. To go from being the youngest MVP in NBA history to one of the elite point guards in the league to a bench player with major injury concerns that organizations are willing to trade around and put on waivers has to be affecting him.

However, Rose is definitely a competitor and doesn’t seem like he wants to quit. Hopefully with this new start in Minnesota, his past will become a weapon of strength to not only prove the critics wrong, but to show that he is still one of the best players out there.