Just prior to the start of training camp, 2011 league MVP Derrick Rose negotiated a buyout of his veteran’s minimum contract with the Memphis Grizzlies, calling it a career after 16 up-and-down NBA seasons.
Rose, 36, was selected by his hometown Chicago Bulls as the No. 1 pick out of the University of Memphis in a decorated 2008 NBA Draft. The high-flying, fast-breaking young superstar quickly became the best among a bright new generation of above-the-rim, score-first, super-athlete point guards, alongside Russell Westbrook and John Wall.
Former NBA MVP, Rookie of the Year Announces Retirement
Rose made three All-Star teams in his first four seasons. By 2010-11 (only his third year in the league), he had led the Bulls to a 62-20 record and the East’s No. 1 seed. Across 81 contests that year, he averaged a career-best 25.0 points on .445/.332/.858 shooting splits, plus 7.7 assists, 4.1 rebounds, 1.0 steals, and 0.6 blocks per bout. He was named an All-NBA First Teamer and became the league’s youngest MVP at age 22.
That stacked Bulls team, which also included eventual All-Stars Luol Deng, Joakim Noah, and Kyle Korver, plus recent All-Star power forward Carlos Boozer, would go on to reach the Eastern Conference Finals, which Chicago lost in five games to the Miami Heat. The future looked bright in the Windy City at long last.
But Rose would burn through his body faster than either Westbrook or Wall, both of whom would eventually suffer serious knee injuries. The Bulls would nab the best record in the East once again in 2011-12 and appeared set to challenge Miami for conference supremacy in the Conference Finals.
Before Chicago could get there, however, the team lost Derrick Rose in the first game of its 1-8 first-round matchup against the Philadelphia 76ers. He tore his ACL and would go on to miss the entirety of the subsequent 2012-13 season. Rose returned to a restocked Chicago club in 2013-14 but tore his meniscus after just 10 games. Noah would go on to enjoy his best-ever season with Rose absent, earning All-Star, Defensive Player of the Year, and All-NBA First Team honors.
The next year’s Bulls club, with Rose finally (mostly) healthy, went 50-32 and nabbed the East’s No. 3 seed. Chicago would fall to a LeBron James-led superstar team, now the Cleveland Cavaliers, in the second round. That year would mark the end of an era, as Rose’s best Bulls coach, Tom Thibodeau, was fired, and small forward Jimmy Butler fully asserted himself as the club’s top player.
In 2015-16, Chicago’s record under then-first-year head coach Fred Hoiberg dipped to 42-40 and the team missed the playoffs. Rose was traded to the New York Knicks that summer, while Noah signed with the club in free agency.
Rose was never again the same player he had been in Chicago during his numerous travels elsewhere — which also included stints with the James’ Cavaliers, the Minnesota Timberwolves, the Detroit Pistons, a return to New York, and finally Memphis in 2023-24. Rose only once played more than 51 games across his years away from Chicago as his body continued to break down.
Rose transitioned from a dunk machine to a below-the-rim player, and from a primary offensive option to a key energy-changing reserve. He still had terrific moments on the hardwood in his new role and still managed to contribute to winning playoff programs (most notably as a sixth man on the 2020-21 Knicks).
The 6-foot-3 point guard had been on a Hall of Fame trajectory prior to his devastating ailments. He finishes with career averages of 17.4 points on .456/.316/.831 shooting splits, 5.2 assists, 3.2 rebounds, and 0.7 steals across 723 career regular season contests (518 starts).
Had Rose been able to string together perhaps two or three more All-Star seasons where he was largely healthy and the best- or second-best player on some deep postseason teams, that combined with his MVP accolades may have been enough to get him into Springfield. Although his fairly brief tenure at the peak of the mountain seems likely to doom him from earning that last accolade, he was a transformational force during his whirlwind run.
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