Rose missed Monday night’s loss to the Pelicans, and the Knicks had grown concerned enough earlier to check on him at his apartment, sources said.
Publicly, the reasons remained a mystery after the game, with coach Jeff Hornacek saying “everything will become clear later on” and teammate Joakim Noah saying Rose was OK.
“I mean, I don’t really want to talk too much about it because I don’t really know what the situation is,” said Noah, who has played with Rose since 2008 as his teammate in Chicago before coming to New York along with Rose prior to this season. “Obviously Derrick is one of our better players. And when he is not here it is tough. But I am just happy that everything is OK with him.”
When asked if Rose’s health is OK in light of his mysterious absence, Noah replied, “Yeah. He’s OK … I think it’s a relief for all of us.”
Hornacek said the Knicks expected Rose back and that it was “just a matter of time.”
“Right now we don’t have enough information to really give you anything,” Hornacek said in his news conference after the 110-96 loss. “So that’s just going to have to wait until we hear something from Derrick himself. Other than that, if you want to talk about the game, ask away.”
League sources told ESPN at least one team official who tried to reach Rose before the game was unable to do so.
Knicks forward Kristaps Porzingis and guard Courtney Lee said they had last seen Rose at the morning shootaround and were worried about their teammate when he wasn’t at Madison Square Garden. Lee said he was “praying that everything is all right” with Rose.
“We don’t know what’s going on. Hopefully he and his family are good, too,” Porzingis said.