Everyone remembers Derrick Rose as the high-flying point guard. Everyone remembers the Chicago kid that became the youngest MVP in league history. Sadly, everyone also remembers how Rose’s career got ruined by injury after injury. Despite all of the injuries, he’s still an icon in Chicago and everywhere around the league.
The rise of Rose
When people say Chicago basketball they think about Michael Jordan, then they think about Derrick Rose. Over Scottie Pippen, over the 72-win season, over the double three-peat. How could they not? Rose is a born and raised Chicago kid, from the crime-heavy area of Englewood. He was selected with the number one overall pick in the 2008 NBA draft by the Chicago Bulls.
In his first season, Rose got rookie of the year honors and the Bulls went to the playoffs after missing it the previous year. They lost in 7 games to the Boston Celtics, who were the defending champions at the time. He improved and became even better in his second season, definitely in the playoffs, even though they lost in 5 games to the Cleveland Cavaliers.
The third season was where we saw the phenomenon. A 21-year old Rose stated before the season that he wanted to become the MVP. “Why can’t I be the MVP of the league?” Many people thought he was crazy, but he wasn’t. Rose would give us a combination of athleticism, speed, dunks and a sweet finishing touch we had never seen before. He was without a doubt the most explosive player in the league. “Too big, too strong, too fast, too good.” Rose averaged 25 points and 7.7 assists on 45% shooting and won the NBA Most Valuable Player award, being the youngest player ever to receive the award. The Bulls would lose to the Miami Heat in the Eastern conference finals.
The following season, which was shortened due to the lockout, injuries started plaguing Rose a little bit. He only played in 39 of the 66 games, but nothing major yet. In the first game of the playoffs, with only a minute left on the clock, Rose would tear his ACL after a little jump stop. The Bulls would go on to win the game, but lose the series, and much worse, lose Rose.
The injuries
It seemed like Rose would miss a big chunk of the season, just when his max contract extension was about to kick in. Rose would rehab and try to get back to full health and didn’t address the media a lot. The Bulls put out a statement that Rose was expected to make a full recovery and return to the team at some point during the season. But Rose never did, and Chicago was divided between the people that defended Rose and the ones that wanted him to play.
The talk divided the city. Rose divided the city. One knee divided the city. Why wasn’t Rose playing if the team doctors had cleared him? Why did the Bulls say he would return if it wasn’t certain? Why doesn’t Rose address the media to give an explanation? Why is his brother the only one we’re hearing of? The truth is, Rose was never back to full health at any point during the season and wanted to focus on his comeback and rehab instead of having to defend himself. Yet, people selfishly wanted Rose to rush himself and get back on the court.
As I said, we wouldn’t see Rose on the court in the 2012-2013 season, but he would return for the 13-14 season. Rose visibly struggled to get back to his former self, which was completely normal as he had missed one year and a half of playing competitive basketball. He was rusty. Unfortunately for Rose, he didn’t get the chance to shake off the rust. He would tear his meniscus just 10 games into the season, underwent surgery to repair it and missed the remainder of that season.
In the 2014-2015 a series of hamstring injuries made him miss games, but another torn meniscus in late February cost him another 6 weeks. The reason that torn meniscus took less time to recover from is because they partially removed the damaged part of the meniscus, or so I’ve been told, I’m not a doctor. He came back just in time for the playoffs, where they won in the first round against the Bucks. The Bulls had to face LeBron again next round. Rose started looking like his former self again and hit an incredible game winner to put the Bulls up 2-1 in the series. LeBron returned the favor next game and the Cavaliers would go on to win out the remainder of the series and the Bulls home in 6 games.
The Mecca
His last season in Chicago would be one that was way less about injuries but more about if Rose could return to his former self. He missed 16 games, which of course isn’t great, but he never missed more than 3 games in a row which was something to build on for Rose. Like I said, Rose wasn’t the player he once was. Injuries in both knees took away the explosive element in his game. Add to it that the Bulls would miss the playoffs and sub sequentially we’d start hearing more and more rumors about Rose being traded.
Rose was traded alongside Justin Holiday and a pick for José Calderon, Jerian Grant and Robin Lopez to the New York Knicks as the Bulls decided to go with Jimmy Butler as their star for the future. Rose was visibly emotional when he got the news of being traded in a phone call with agent B.J. Armstrong, as we could see in Rose’s documentary ‘Pooh’ released in April of this year.
He got paired with Carmelo Anthony and Kristaps Porzingis and people were talking about a potential big 3 to go against the one in Cleveland. Rose had quite a good season, perhaps the best since his ACL tear, and the ‘Big 3’ combined for 58.5 points per game. However, the Knicks would finish with an embarrassing record of 31-51.
Rose appeared in 64 games and missed the last 8 games of the season due to yet another knee surgery, this time due to torn knee cartilage. The biggest story that season (for Rose) however was when Rose went completely A.W.O.L. He missed a game in January to be with his mother without notifying anyone on the team but Joakim Noah.
Mental health
Rose signed with the Cavs that summer on a minimum contract and teamed up with Dwyane Wade, LeBron James, Isaiah Thomas and Kevin Love. On paper the team looked good, on the floor they were a hot mess. Rose would appear in just 16 games with the Cavs, as he took a long leave away from basketball after 7 games when yet another injury hit.
Rose was reportedly considering retirement as his body wouldn’t keep up anymore. All the injuries took a toll on him, and yet people bashed him for not showing up. At that point in his career, Rose had missed almost 40% of regular season games due to injuries. It’s normal for someone not to be okay after working so hard to come back every time and getting beat down once again.
He came back to play another 9 games with the Cavaliers before he was traded to the Utah Jazz, who cut him immediately afterwards. He had to wait for another month before the Minnesota Timberwolves contacted him. He signed with them and reunited with former coach Tom Tibodeau and former teammates Jimmy Butler, Taj Gibson and Aaron Brooks.
Rose put up decent numbers in the playoffs against Houston coming off the bench, as the Timberwolves lost in 5 games to the best team in the league that year.
The Rose that grew from the concrete
His performance convinced the Timberwolves to sign him to a one-year deal for the veteran’s minimum. Rose would function as the backup shooting guard; a position he wasn’t used to as he had been a point guard for his whole career. Rose put up his best season post-injury and changed his game drastically. More 3-point and jump shot oriented while relying way less on his athleticism.
He had his best game against the Utah Jazz on Halloween night, when he put up a career high 50 points and had the game-winning block on the last-second 3-point attempt. When asked what it meant for him, he stated “Everything, man, I worked my ass off, bro”. That’s exactly what the former MVP did.
He worked his way back from a countless amount of injuries, swallowed his pride to become a 6th man and took a huge pay-cut, becoming a player on a veteran’s minimum after having been a max-contract player.
Influence
Rose’s legacy lasts way beyond his achievements. The things he meant to the city of Chicago, doing community work, being the number one pick selected by his hometown team and delivering. He always gave back to a city that loved him when he was doing great and sometimes kicked him when he was down.
He redefined the athletic point-guard position. The speed and explosiveness you see in John Wall and Russell Westbrook isn’t on the level Rose’s was. He set the blueprint for guys like them to be successful without having the best of jump shots. Russell Westbrooks famous ‘Why not?’ slogan he used during his MVP season and has kept using since is a tribute to Rose’s ‘Why not?’ he used during his MVP season.
Players like Kawhi Leonard saw what it did to Derrick Rose and Isaiah Thomas to rush back from an injury due to pressure from the city, media and team. Kawhi himself was also cleared to play by the team doctors and decided to sit out anyway, as he felt it wasn’t right, just like Rose did.
But the biggest influence Rose has had is on the kids from the city of Chicago. Jabari Parker went to Simeon high school just like Rose did. Walt Lemon Jr., who was signed by the Bulls during the season, wears the number 25 like Derrick Rose and his playstyle is just mirroring Rose’s. The movement, the layups, the hop-steps, the crossovers,… Lemon has a huge respect for Rose, something he has stated many times, and has emphasized the influence Rose has had on the kids growing up in the tough streets of Chicago.
Rose is a Hall of Famer in my eyes without any doubt. Rose is in an elite list of players to have been the first pick and delivering by winning both rookie of the year and MVP. He’s also the youngest MVP in league history so it would be a crime not to select him. He would be the only MVP ever not to be inducted into the Hall of Fame. No matter what happens, we all know the influence Rose has had on the game and I wish him the best in whatever follows and definitely hope he can stay healthy.
Courtside 