Michael Jordan’s $29,000,000 Highland Park mansion has been in the news for quite some time now. The 56,000 square feet, seven-acre property has failed to attract any potential buyers because of its high listing price and heavily customized interiors. Even though the mansion is up for sale now, Michael Jordan used to reside there with his family before his separation from ex-wife Juanita Vanoy in 2006. It was at this time that the Chicago Bulls legend hosted a bright young prospect in his home, who would go on to become the greatest Chicago Bull in the post-90s era. Chicago native and former Bulls star Derrick Rose recently revealed visiting Michael Jordan as a 15-year-old high school sophomore.
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Derrick Rose had started to make noise in the basketball scene in Chicago from an early age. Rose joined Simeon Career Academy as a freshman in 2003. He was not allowed in the Varsity team as a freshman due to school policy. However, the teenage sensation led the freshman and sophomores to city championships, putting up an average of 18.5 points, 6.6 assists, and 4.7 rebounds. It was around this time that he would suddenly receive the opportunity of a lifetime, the chance to visit Michael Jordan’s home.
Derrick Rose talks about visiting Michael Jordan as a 15-year-old
Derrick Rose recently revealed during a sit-down that Jordan’s sons Jeffrey and Marcus had invited him to the Jordan household during his sophomore year in high school. Rose became nostalgic recalling the fateful day. Growing up in Chicago, Michael Jordan almost seemed like a mythical figure to him. Therefore, he was very nervous before the visit.
“I just remember getting into the gate-you see the 23 in the gate. The gate open-we drive in and you see, like this impeccable landscape…So we get to the house, it’s like a palace, it’s like a complex. And you see five or six vehicles out there…there were six Bentleys…blew me away,” Rose said.
“The whole time I’m thinking I’m not gonna see MJ, he gonna be somewhere else in the house…We entered the door, it was where the gym was…They[Jordan and his sons] were in there hooping. That whole time I watched them, every second while I was there. I watched him[MJ] the entire time, watched him be a dad, watched him take out garbage, like things I never thought I’d be able to see,” the 2011 NBA MVP added.
Despite being a fierce competitor on the court, Michael Jordan is known to be a devoted family man. Derrick Rose got the opportunity to see that side of MJ as a high school kid.
Rose’s meteoric rise in Chicago
Derrick Rose was a highly scouted prospect since his early days in high school. Sports Illustrated ranked D-Rose as the fifth-best prospect in the country in his senior year in school.
After his college stint in Memphis, Rose was drafted first overall by the Bulls in the 2008 NBA Draft. After winning the Rookie of the Year in 2009 and the MVP award in 2011, the three-time All-Star rekindled hopes in the hearts of Chicago fans(including Michael Jordan) of a potential repeat of the Bulls’ 1990s glory. However, those hopes never really realized as Rose’s talent perished because of injuries.
