On Sept. 26, former NBA MVP, Chicago Bulls point guard and Englewood native Derrick Rose announced his retirement. With a heartfelt letter posted to his social media pages, Rose bid his farewell and thank you to his first love — the game of basketball.
The Bulls plan to honor Rose on Jan. 4, 2025 at the United Center during a game against the New York Knicks, a team Rose also played for in two separate stints (2016, 2021-2023). That moment will be a great night of reflection, hopefully featuring in-person tributes from former teammates like his close friend Joakim Noah and the coach most associated with Rose in the pros, former Bulls and current Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau. The Bulls haven’t shared the celebration schedule for “Derrick Rose Night.”
Rose came into the league heralded as a No. 1 overall pick in 2008, but he played with a hunger in every game that is rarely seen in the NBA today. Rose’s fearlessness was something in particular that Chicagoans related to during his seven-year stint with the Bulls.
For most Black Chicagoans, who also grew up in some of the city’s most underserved neighborhoods plagued by crime and drugs, they saw themselves in Rose’s journey. He was “The Rose That Grew From Concrete,” as so memorably described by rapper Tupac Shakur in a posthumously-published book of his poems.
Rose leaned into his identity of homegrown exceptionalism, famously reflected in a Powerade commercial campaign in 2020 that promoted him as “Just a kid from Chicago.” The next year, a documentary titled “From the Concrete” furthered the Pac-inspired allegory as suited for him. Indeed, the story of this Englewood native has inspired a generation of dreamers inside and outside of basketball to think beyond the limitations of their environment, to overcome, and to keep pushing.
More urgently, Rose brought back an excitement to the Bulls and the city of Chicago that had only been seen previously during the mythical 1990s era of Michael Jordan. But this was something different. Rose was one of our own, from the South Side, a native beacon who shone for all those in Chicago’s inner city to see.
“The hype was so real that I had to take some of my PTO hours at work so I could take off and go see him play at Simeon,” said Eugene McIntosh, co-founder of The BIGS, the only Black-owned and fully-credentialed independent sport media outlet in Chicago. “I was convinced.”
After seeing one game at Simeon, a game in which McIntosh remembers Rose finishing an emphatic alley oop, McIntosh thought to himself, “This guy is League. He’s one and done.”
McIntosh recalled first hearing about “Pooh,” as he was affectionately known to those closest to him since his childhood, when the young phenom was only in the seventh grade at Beasley Elementary Magnet Academic Center, located in Chicago’s Washington Park area.
A Beasley alum as well, McIntosh was close to those rumbling about a new basketball prodigy roaming the halls of the elementary school. At the time, McIntosh said a number of high schools, including his alma mater Mt. Carmel, were clamoring to recruit the young basketball star. To all their disappointment, Rose had already chosen Simeon as his high school destination. Before Rose, the school was synonymous with Benjamin “Benji” Wilson Jr, a basketball savant whose greatness was tragically cut short at age 17 when he was gunned down in 1984 while walking his girlfriend home. At Simeon, Rose wore no. 25 in honor of Wilson.
Simeon entered a new era of domination of Illinois prep basketball with Rose there, winning two state championships. In an era between straight-to-the-pros declaration and G-League Ignite college avoidance, Rose utilized a platform at the University of Memphis with legendary coach and NBA assembly line conductor John Calipari, coming just short of an NCAA championship in a thrilling national championship game against Kansas.
The NBA was ready for Rose as a basketball player and he was ready for it, but it took more time for him to adjust to the demands of basketball stardom as an individual. At the start of his NBA career, it was evident that Rose had a hard time trusting, and talking to the media.
“[Rose] never felt comfortable in [the media],” McIntosh said. “Derrick was one of those guys that, you know, you’re obligated to talk and do your media availabilities, but he’s one of those guys that just wanted to hoop.”
The way Rose was scrutinized by the media for any size indiscretion, from missing games to simply misspeaking in an interview, played a part in the establishment of The BIGS, according to McIntosh. During the beginning of his days of covering the NBA with The BIGS co-founder Terrence Tomlin, McIntosh said they shared a connection with the young MVP, who quickly noticed that they weren’t like the other mainstream media outlets; they were from the streets, too. Rose naturally gravitated towards them.
“Hey, Pooh,” McIntosh recalled shouting to get Rose’s attention after an afternoon practice in the mid 2010s. According to McIntosh, Rose’s ears perked up, and he walked over to The BIGS. Mcintosh shared with Rose that he, too, went to Beasley and played for Coach Green. The conversation was the perfect ice breaker.
“I just shot my shot,” McIntosh said. “I couldn’t even get done with my spiel; he took my phone out of my hand, typed his name and number in my phone, and told me to save it.”
Today, we get a different version of Rose in his mid-30s; one that is comfortable speaking on podcasts and going to other media outlets to speak freely. But during Rose’s time with the Bulls, The BIGS gave Rose what McIntosh calls a “shoulder to lean on,” media-wise.
“Once he finally got comfortable, once he was finally able to kind of let his guard down and be himself when we came around, most of the fans got to see a different version of Derrick,” said McIntosh.
OVERCOMING DARK TIMES
After his drafting in 2008 (something that came to the Bulls in a rare instance of obvious good luck given their 1.7 percent odds to win the No. 1 pick going into that year’s NBA Draft lottery), Rose wasted little time impressing those who saw his dazzling and explosive athleticism on the court.
The efforts Rose made moving the ball in transition and the emphasis with which he’d punctuate drives, either with confident lay-ups or devastating dunks, showed a star on the rise. An overall quiet demeanor amongst the media provided another dimension to root for, showing that Rose was more than a one-dimensional basketball demon. On the court he transformed into the terror of ill-prepared defenses. Off-court, he was often shy, deferential but always appreciative, and in many ways just another kid from the city who was easy to know once he got a feel of who, or what, was around him.
In his first year with the Bulls, Rose would average 16.8 points, 6.3 assists, and 3.9 rebounds per game, contributions that helped him lead the Bulls to a playoff appearance and himself to NBA Rookie of the Year honors.
Rose would eventually become a talking point and lightning rod for basketball fanatics everywhere. But then, Rose’s body seemingly started to fail him. In November 2014, Rose was battling through two ankle sprains and had most recently missed three games. Naturally, the press was hounding him about his health.
“I felt like I’ve been managing myself pretty good,” a 26-year-old Rose told reporters after a practice back then. “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.
Rose continued, “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.”
This was the quote heard around the world. Rose’s perceived selfishness at the time could now be seen as sober foresight coming not only from a player who — by then — knew the challenges that came with significant injury and long-term recovery, but one who could foresee more NBA players sustaining injuries due to the league’s established “Basketball Never Stops” mentality that only awarded a precious few.
McIntosh said the media was unnecessarily hard on Rose at the time.
“Some [former players] have had these different hip surgeries. Now at 50 years old, 60 years old, they can barely walk,” McIntosh told The TRiiBE. “So I think Derrick got a bad rap for just explaining exactly who he was and being unapologetic about it.”
Rose certainly wasn’t going to apologize for his concerns, not after tearing his ACL in the first round of the 2012 playoffs, unceremoniously ending a season that saw the Bulls enter the postseason as a No. 1 Eastern Conference seed for the second straight season while looking like a legit NBA championship front-runner. Almost every Chicagoan can remember where they were when Rose first went down, the expression of pain taking over his face, the prospects of another dynasty fading in an instant. Surely, within a couple of weeks, the Philadelphia 76ers, as a No. 8 seed, were advancing past the Bulls. A couple months later, LeBron James secured his first NBA Championship with the Miami Heat, and an era would eventually be lost to Rose and the Bulls.
To further understand the circumstances of Rose’s career, The TRiiBE also spoke to Scoop Jackson, a legendary sports journalist, an ESPN correspondent for years and a major contributor to Slam Magazine during its heyday.
“With a player like [Rose], it’s always sad when the journey ends,” Jackson said. “The happiness comes from knowing Derrick’s past, [and] that he did have a journey.”
It’s not a hot take to say that the 2012 ACL tear, for whatever reason, would be the beginning of an avalanche of injuries that came Rose’s way, consequently altering the trajectory of his career. Among the injuries that followed were, most notably, tears in Rose’s right meniscus in 2013 and 2015, as well as a tear to his left meniscus in 2017.
Rose also had the added challenge of competing in an era that belonged to King James, who first squared off with Rose in the postseason after Rose’s prime achievement of winning the 2010-11 League MVP (the youngest recipient of that award).
For Jackson, Rose should be proud to be able to eventually call it quits on his own terms, a luxury that many, especially those who’ve suffered from nagging injuries, don’t usually get to do.
“From Carmelo Anthony to Jamal Crawford, to Isaiah Thomas to Demarcus Cousins, to Amar’e Stoudemire,” Jackson said, “they’re bouncing around from team to team, and all of a sudden, they’re not playing at all.”
According to Jackson, Rose’s series of injuries and what they inevitably stopped marked something unprecedented in the NBA.
“[Rose is] probably the one player who was most impacted by the amount of injuries that he had than any other player in the history of the game,” he said.
Research conducted by Jackson shows that Rose suffered 51 injuries of significance.
“Dealing with that many injuries, it would have made sense if his career ended with injury. But the fact that it didn’t, that’s the beautiful thing,” Jackson said.
According to Jackson, these injuries not only took a toll on Rose’s physical health, but they also tested his mental health time and again.
Having to overcome a mountain of injuries, Jackson said, while also playing for your hometown, and in the shadow of the overall acknowledged GOAT, Jordan, was anything but easy for Rose.
“He never let his situation break him,” Jackson said. “I really don’t think anyone has tapped into how dark his life was, dealing with those recurring injuries, and the places he had to go to survive, damn near by himself, and not have that depth of darkness break him.”
Jackson continued, “As a young man, under 25 years old, when you start questioning, ‘why is God doing this to me?’ He had to come out, and still find love for this game.”
WILL THE BULLS RETIRE HIS JERSEY?
Upon the announcement of Rose’s retirement, fans wasted no time debating, or campaigning in their own way, for the immediate retirement of Rose’s jersey in the United Center.
“There’s not been anyone more representative, from a sports standpoint, of this entire city than [Rose],” Jackson said. “For not just what he’s done in a Bulls uniform, [but] what he’s meant to this city.”
A jersey retirement, alongside entry into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, would be ideal for Rose, according to Jackson.
However, any full recounting of Rose’s public life has to include the sexual assault civil suit from 2016 that resulted after an ex-girlfriend claimed Rose and two friends came to her apartment after an evening of drinking at Rose’s Beverly Hills mansion and raped her while she was incapacitated in August of 2013.
Rose and his friends would eventually all be found “not liable,” but some argue that the civil suit affected the once reserved reputation of a once quiet and unassuming star.
Jackson agrees the civil case should be mentioned when discussing Rose’s entire story.
“I don’t know if [the civil suit] hangs over his head, but it should not be eliminated or erased from his legacy at all. It should be something that is considered and it should be something that is taken into context when evaluating what we all feel his legacy is,” Jackson said.
Jackson continued, “I understand the power that incidents do have, but I can’t be hypocritical and sit up here and say that Derrick Rose should have something held against him, or, you know, held over him, and Kobe Bryant’s situation wasn’t.”
Bryant, who tragically died in a helicopter crash in 2020, was charged with one count of felony assault following a 2003 incident where a 19-year-old woman said he raped her in his hotel room. According to the LA Times, the accuser decided she would not testify, and prosecutors dropped the case in September 2004. Later, a civil suit brought by the accuser was settled out of court in March 2005.
“That’s not in any way trying to dismiss it or reduce the magnitude of what it is,” Jackson said about Rose’s case. “I just think it’ll be hypocritical, and it’ll be hypocritical to say that it shouldn’t be considered, because it should. It happened.”
While the sexual assault civil suit should be a part of the conversation, how much of the conversation should it be?
“That’s up to whoever’s telling the story,” Jackson said.
To many Chicagoans, Rose has been and remains an inspiration. An inspiration not only to those who dream to play professional basketball, but for those who aspire to reach beyond the limitations of poverty. For those who, in the unending concrete, see space to cultivate a rose.
Rose continues to give back to his hometown. Recently, he teamed up with Adidas to make Simeon the first official “Rose School.” According to the Chicago Tribune, the partnership will provide support for the Simeon girls and boys basketball teams, including Adidas uniforms for both programs.
“Derrick Rose should definitely at least have his jersey retired,” McIntosh declared. “One should go up in the rafters next to Mike [Jordan] and Scottie [Pippen], and Jerry Sloan and Norm Van Leer, [and] whoever else is up there.”
According to McIntosh, the honorifics shouldn’t stop there. He said Rose deserves a statue, too.
“Derrick is Chicago’s son,” he told The TRiiBE. “He’s Chicago’s son. He’s our cousin, our little nephew. He might be uncle to some of the younger guys. Derrick is that person to Chicago basketball.”
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