This is an odd case, in professional sports.

Nearly every professional athlete plays through pain. .

When an injury is too severe to play on … he or she returns at the first moment. Often before they were expected to play — or perhaps should be playing.

Then there is Derrick Rose.

Rose, the top pick, by the Chicago Bulls, ahead of the 2008-09 season, was headed for a great career. Key player for a good team; MVP at age 22 for a 62-20 team.

Early in the following season, he signed a five-season contract extension worth $94.8 million.

Then injuries began to break him down.

Late in the 2011-12 season, his left knee exploded. He missed all of the following season, despite being signed off to play in January.

In November of the 2013-14 season, he wrecked his right knee. His first game back was opening night of the current season, when he played 21 minutes — only his 50th appearance in 247 Bulls games.

And then came more injuries. Sprains in both ankles this season. A hamstring issue. If he sits tomorrow, that will be five missed games from the 10 the Bulls have played.

He said some interesting things this week, which suggest he is not going to push himself too hard.

“I felt like I’ve been managing myself pretty good, he said. “I know a lot of people get mad when they see me sit out or whatever, but I think a lot of people don’t understand that … when I sit out it’s not because of this year.

“I’m thinking about long term. I’m thinking about after I’m done with basketball. Having graduations to go to, having meetings to go to, I don’t want to be in my meetings all sore or be at my son’s graduation all sore just because of something I did in the past. [I’m] just learning and being smart.”

Well then.

On one level, this is prudent. Rose does not want to end up walking with a cane, with artificial knees, before he is 40. (Look at any number of coaches; most of them walk with a limp.)

If you or I had an exercise that our bodies couldn’t handle, we would give it up. Find something else to do.

But we are not professional athletes. Derrick Rose is.

His “thinking about the long term” is not what we expect from our athletes, and that is why so many sports journalists (and, presumably, fans) went nuts when they heard about that. (Watch the video, at the link, above.)

It seemed disproportionate and shrill, the criticism.

But then I thought more about athletes I have known, and I think the problem with “saving myself for later in life” is this:

Pro athletes are paid to ruin their bodies — right here and right now.

In Rose’s case, he has a $94.8 million contract to get out there and play. Even when he is something less than 100 percent, physically.

His contract is guaranteed, so he gets the money even if he suffers another severe injury or says he cannot play … but our mental default settings expect him to be out there even at half speed.

Because that is what all other athletes do.

It isn’t clear that professional athletes fully grasp how things are likely to turn out. They’re young and strong, and it’s hard to project into the future. And who wants to?

But it is unlikely a NFL player or an elite soccer player is going to get through a career of any length without a couple of serious injuries. To heads and to legs, in particular.

Baseball pitchers? They will need surgery on elbows or shoulders. Hockey players? Name an injury they won’t get. They don’t even get to leave the game with their teeth.

And then we see them, 10 years after they have retired, and they often are hulks. Some regret their choices. Some do not.

But what is clear, in the Rose case, is that he is not following the prescribed path for injured players. Which, as Marcellus Wiley of ESPN put it, is to “ball until you fall”.

The negative reaction to Rose’s “long term” stuff comes from two sources.

The personal, which is a reaction to sports cultures where athletes are expected to play hurt and to return from injuries early.

And, if we are being cold-blooded about it, that athletes can buy a golf cart to move around, when they are 40, because right now they’re making $18 million a year (in Rose’s case). They are being paid to risk their joints.

It is an interesting situation. Landon Donovan’s “mental health break” in late 2012 and early 2013, is perhaps analogous.

The difference being, in Donovan’s case, he understood he was taking a risk, in terms of his career, and the risk turned into Jurgen Klinsmann not taking him the the 2014 World Cup.

Rose has no economic risk, at least short term.

So far, he is getting criticism and reproach … but he is still getting paid through this season and two more. Whether he plays 10 games or 200.

This could be some sort of breakthrough, in terms of athletes taking control of their careers and long-term health.

Or it could be an aberration, that ends with Rose derided forever as the softest player in the history of the NBA.

Either way, this bears watching.