New York Knicks president Phil Jackson addressed Derrick Rose's pending trial for a civil suit involving an alleged sexual assault on Friday, saying the club is hopeful that it does not impact Rose's season.
"One thing I'd like to address is about Derrick Rose and the process he's going through," Jackson said at the beginning of his season-opening press conference. "We anticipate it will not affect his season hopefully, training camp or games.
"But we're going to let the due process of the justice system works its way through here in the next week and a half or so. We want to put this to rest. There doesn't need to be a lot of talk about this."
A woman sued Rose last year, claiming the former MVP and two of his friends raped her in August 2013. Rose and the others deny her claims and contend they had consensual sex with her that night.
A trial is scheduled to begin Oct. 4 in Los Angeles, the same day the Knicks face the Houston Rockets to open their preseason. Rose, presumably, would miss preseason practices and games if the case goes to trial.
"I think we're just going to let the process work itself out," Jackson said when asked about the possibility of Rose missing training camp. "We're not concerned with it. We understand this is a serious subject we're talking about. But this has to be done outside of our control. It's something we can't control. Derrick has expressed that he's not concerned with it. I mean, he's quite aware of it. It's not keeping him up at night. So we're going with that, OK?"
Jackson declined to answer a question addressed to both him and general manager Steve Mills about how much the Knicks looked into the case before trading for Rose or about any concern over the public perception of the organization in light of the case.
Rose played his first seven seasons with the Chicago Bulls, winning Rookie of the Year and, in 2011, MVP honors. He is in his first season with the Knicks after being traded in the final year of a five-year deal with Chicago that will pay him $21.3 million.