“It just sucks. Where you feel everything. Your body is sore. Headaches, all that. Kids wasn't too bad. They had fevers and runny noses — that was pretty much it — and a bad cough. It's real. The COVID thing, I know a lot of people overlook it, but it's very serious. It's real."

Rose added that his symptoms from COVID-19 were unlike anything he’d experienced before.

"It was completely different. They say everybody is different but with me I never felt anything like that before. I had the flu; it was nothing like the flu in my sense. The flu, your stomach, you're drained and everything – it was that times 10,” Rose said. “I'm slowly getting back. I'm progressing every day. Just trying to get back in the swing of things and the team, everybody, the franchise, everybody in the franchise reached out every day. It was nothing but love coming from everybody over here."

Rose’s status for Tuesday’s game against Washington is unclear. Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau said Rose will need some time to regain conditioning before he returns to games.

Rose had been sidelined since March 2, when an inconclusive COVID-19 test forced him to miss the Knicks’ game in San Antonio.

After several subsequent negative tests, Rose was cleared to fly home with the Knicks to New York. But he said that he tested positive for COVID-19 the day after that flight back to New York. He’d been in quarantine with his family following the positive test.

“"It sucked. I was with my family. My girl. My kids. Her mom. All of us had it. I was in the house … and taking the tests. Of course taking all the meds and everything,” Rose said. “I was with my family and that was the best thing about it. But like I said it was in the past and thank God I don't have to worry about that anymore."

Rose was frustrated to be away from the court for the past three weeks. Since he joined the Knicks via trade, he’d given the offense a boost and provided guidance for the club’s younger players.

Now, he’s grateful that he and his family are healthy after their bout with COVID-19. And he’s hoping to regain his rhythm as soon as possible.

“Getting better and playing in rhythm and trying to get myself back to where I was is going to take some time but every day I'm getting the most out of all of my days. That's all I can do.

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