It appears as though that Minnesota Timberwolves point guard Derrick Rose could be forced to miss time during the 2018-19 NBA regular season schedule because of an alleged incident that occurred off of the court.
According to a report from sports attorney Daniel Wallbach, the woman who has accused Rose and two of his friends of sexual assault will have her appeal heard by the Ninth Circuit on November 16th. The oral argument will be heard in Pasadena. Per Wallach, each side will be allotted 15 minutes to make their case after the two sides went through a 10-day trial in 2016 while the former NBA MVP was a member of the New York Knicks.
While criminal charges were never filed against Rose and his two friends, the civil suit which they were found not liable by a jury of their peers and avoided being forced to pay the plaintiff the amount she was seeking in damages, which was reportedly $21.5 million.
Following the initial civil trial, members of the jury discussed what ultimately led to their decision as according to Newsweek, there simply was not enough evidence available for them to rule in favor of the accuser.
A jury of six women and two men ruled on the case. In comments reported by The Guardian, the jury forewoman, Janet, said: “I think most of us believe it’s possible there are pieces of her story that were true, but there just wasn’t any evidence.”
The New York Post quoted one unnamed female juror as saying the alleged victim’s story ultimately “didn’t add up.”
Given the fact that the Timberwolves are scheduled to host the Portland Trail Blazers on the night that Rose is scheduled to appear in court for this appeal, it seems safe to assume that the former league MVP will be missing, at least, one regular season game to deal with this matter.
This past season, Rose made a total of 25 appearances while playing for the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Timberwolves and owned averages of 8.4 points to go along with 1.5 assists and 1.4 rebounds per game.
After finishing the season in Minnesota, Tom Thibodeau elected to re-sign Rose to a one-year deal which will pay him a total of just over $2.3 million.