The Chicago Bulls are facing a case of deja vu with their superstar point guard Derrick Rose, who had to have surgery to repair a torn ACL in his left knee. He'll have to sit out 8-12 months before he's fully healed. During Michael Jordan's sophomore season in the NBA, he too suffered an injury - a broken foot - which forced him to miss the majority of the season. Bulls chairman Jerry Reinsdorf recently compared the impact of both injuries.

"I'm not going to let him back until the doctors tell me that it's absolutely safe for him to come back," Reinsdorf said. "I made that mistake with Michael Jordan years ago where I think we let him come back too soon. It worked out OK, but it might not have. This time I'm not going to make that mistake. Until the doctors say he's 100 percent and they put their reputations on the line, he's not coming back."

Reinsdorf stated that he feared Jordan's injury could be more detrimental if he didn't keep him sidelined. "I was scared to death he was going to be hurt again, and that would be the last we would ever see of Michael Jordan," Reinsdorf said.

Michael Jordan expressed his opinion of the situation when he spoke with ESPNChicago.com.

"I have a unique perspective. I've been a player, I've been in that scenario, and I would definitely consult with the player and I would never take his opinion, desire or feelings for granted. You have to factor that in."

Jordan remembers this point in time clearly and admits he was annoyed when he wasn't allowed to make a return when he wanted to.

"The thing was, at the time, we were going through a rebuilding process, and I was practicing two hours a day and that was the thing that bothered me more than anything. If I can go through two-hour practices, as intense as I practice, then when the game came, they gave me a seven-minute window to play. That's when I felt more frustrated than anything. I felt more than anything they were positioning themselves for the draft and I didn't feel good being part of that. I felt I was an all-out player who didn't half-a** anything, and they wanted to move up (in the draft). I was a player, I wanted to play."

Source: espn.go.com