Derrick Rose, Chicago native and NBA MVP with the Bulls, announces retirement from pro basketball after 16 seasons
CHICAGO — Derrick Rose, a Chicago native and city basketball legend in every sense of the word, is retiring from professional basketball.
Rose, who grew up in Englewood on the city’s Southwest Side and was a prep star at Simeon before being drafted No. 1 overall by the Bulls in 2008, told The Athletic he was retiring. He made his retirement official in a social media post Thursday morning.
Rose turns 36 next week Friday, Oct. 4.
The Bulls posted multiple tributes to Rose on their X feed Thursday morning. One of them said: “The kid from Englewood turned into a Chicago legend.”
Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf also issued a statement, saying, in part: “Drafting Derrick in 2008 was a special moment, not just for the Bulls organization, but for Derrick, the kid from Chicago, realizing his dream of playing for his hometown team. As both a player and a person, Derrick represents the grit, resilience and heart of this city. He’s one of the toughest and most determined athletes I’ve ever been around, constantly fighting through adversity that would have broken most.
“… I wish Derrick all the best in his retirement, knowing he’ll enjoy this next chapter with his family. He will always be a part of our Bulls family, and we look forward to welcoming him back to the United Center to celebrate his incredible journey among his hometown fans.”
Rose, whose NBA career spanned 16 seasons with six teams, also took out ads in local papers in the six NBA cities where he played — Chicago, New York, Cleveland, Minneapolis, Detroit and Memphis — according to reports.
Rose played with the Memphis Grizzlies in 2023-24 in what turned out to be his final season.
“The next chapter is about chasing my dreams and sharing my growth,” Rose said in a statement to The Athletic. “I believe true success comes from becoming who you were created to be, and I want to show the world who I am beyond basketball.”
Rose is most well-known, of course, for his time with the Bulls, where his NBA career was on pace to be perhaps one of the best ever.
Rose was the NBA’s Rookie of the Year in 2008-09 for the Bulls, was the league’s MVP two seasons later, and was an All-Star selection in three of his first four seasons.
But his career — and the trajectory of the entire Bulls franchise — was altered irrevocably on the night of April 28, 2012. During Game 1 of an Eastern Conference first-round playoff series against the Philadelphia 76ers, Rose suffered a major knee injury.
He missed almost two full seasons and contemplated stepping away from the game several times, but he always returned.
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Rose was never quite the explosive player after the knee injury that he was before it, but he went on to play in three more seasons with the Bulls and then seven seasons with five other teams before announcing his retirement Thursday.
“Whether good or bad, everyone has a ‘What if?’ story in their life,” Rose said in his statement to The Athletic. “Even if I could, I wouldn’t change anything in mine, because it’s what helped me find real joy.”
Rose averaged 17.4 points and 5.2 assists in 723 career regular-season games and 21.9 points and 6.3 assists in 52 career postseason games.
After his Simeon days, Rose attended the University of Memphis for one season to play for head coach John Calipari. Rose led the Tigers to an NCAA national runner-up finish as a freshman in 2007-08, then he entered the 2008 NBA Draft and was selected No. 1 overall by his hometown NBA franchise.
Star-crossed career
Rose had immediate success in the NBA, totaling 11 points and nine assists in his pro debut on Oct. 28, 2008, a win over the Milwaukee Bucks at the United Center.
Rose would go on to average 16.8 points and 6.3 assists per game as a rookie, winning the NBA Rookie of the Year award and helping the Bulls to the 2009 playoffs, where they lost a memorable first-round series in seven games to the Boston Celtics.
Rose had a great series, averaging 19.7 points, 6.3 rebounds and 6.4 assists in his postseason debut.
Rose then garnered his first All-Star selection in 2009-10, averaging 20.8 points per game and leading the Bulls back to the playoffs.
Then came 2010-11, when Rose had one of the greatest seasons in Bulls history.
He averaged 25 points, 7.7 assists, 4.1 rebounds and 1.0 steals per game, shooting 48.1% from the field and 85.8% from the free-throw line. Rose was named MVP that season at the age of 22. He remains the youngest player in league history to win the award.
Rose led the Bulls to the 2011 Eastern Conference Finals, the deepest the team had advanced in the playoffs since the second three-peat of the Michael Jordan era in the 1990s.
Facing the LeBron James-led Miami Heat for a trip to the NBA Finals, the Bulls won Game 1. But the Heat won the next four to advance, despite Rose averaging 23.4 points per game in the series.
With hopes of reaching the Finals in 2011-12, Rose again earned All-Star recognition and led the Bulls to a 50-16 record — the season started late due to a labor dispute — and the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs.
But on a drive to the basket late in Chicago’s first playoff game, Rose jumped into the air and came down in severe pain without any contact. He was diagnosed with an ACL tear in his left knee, and the Bulls were unable to recover minus their star player, losing the first-round series in six games to the eighth-seeded Sixers.
Rose missed all of the 2012-13 season with the injury and attempted to return in 2013-14. But a torn meniscus in the right knee ended his comeback season after just 10 games.
Rose rehabbed again and came back to start 51 games for the Bulls in 2014-15 and 66 games in 2015-16, but he just wasn’t quite the same player he had been before.
The Bulls reached the Eastern Conference semifinals in 2015, but after they failed to reach the postseason the following year, Rose was traded to the New York Knicks in a multi-player deal.
That started a journey for Rose that took him to five NBA teams, including two stints with the Knicks. And while he never got back to his early-career numbers, Rose did enjoy some very productive NBA seasons still.
He averaged 18 points per game with the Minnesota Timberwolves in 2018-19 and 18.1 per game with the Detroit Pistons in 2019-20. That included a career-high 50-point game with the Timberwolves on Halloween night in 2018 in a three-point win over the Utah Jazz.
Rose split the 2020-21 season with the Pistons and Knicks after he was traded back to New York. He averaged 14.7 points and 4.2 assists per game that season, finishing third in Sixth Man of the Year voting and ninth in MVP voting.
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After two more seasons with the Knicks, Rose signed a free-agent deal with the Grizzlies prior to last season. But he played in just 24 games for Memphis in 2023-24, and the Grizzlies waived him on Monday.
Three days later, Rose announced his retirement.
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