LOS ANGELES: Point Guard Derrick Rose, who rejoined his Cleveland Cavaliers teammates this week after time away to consider his NBA future, said Friday he might still need ankle surgery.
A sore left ankle, the latest in a litany of injuries for the 2011 NBA Most Valuable Player, had sidelined Rose on November 7, and he later took an extended break as he weighed his options.
He rejoined the team on Monday, and at the Cavs' shootaround on Friday thanked club management and his teammates for giving him time to reflect.
"I would like to say thanks to the whole franchise -- Koby (Altman, GM), the front office, the players, the coaches, the coaching staff -- I'd like to say thank you for allowing me my privacy to keep my right state of mind and to keep my happiness," he told reporters.
But Rose said he wasn't 100 percent certain that intensive rehabilitation would be enough to resolve a bone spur in his ankle.
"I've got to go through rehab with trying to get my ankle right," Rose said. "I've got a bone spur that I didn't tell anybody, but I was just trying to process all that myself.
"It's all about first getting the area to calm down and then strengthening your leg back up again. So, afterwards, we may have to have a procedure but who knows."
Rose, in his first season with the Cavaliers, denied that he had requested a trade while he was away.
"No, no, no, no, no, no. Trade? No," Rose said. "Come on, man. I'm on one of the best teams in the league? Why would I ask to get traded? They gave me every opportunity and still are going to give me every opportunity that I would want from any other team too and that's just to hoop. I just want to hoop."
Rose averaged 14.3 points, 2.6 rebounds and 1.7 assists this season before he was sidelined.
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