‘What if Derrick Rose didn’t get injured’ is one of the biggest hypotheticals in the NBA. The 34-year-old Memphis Grizzlies guard took the league by storm since the very day he entered the NBA. Drafted number 1 in the 2008 Draft, Rose was all set to bring the Chicago Bulls’ past glory back. At 22 years and 6 months old, in his third year in the league, he became the youngest player to win the MVP award and the only player in Bulls’ history after Michael Jordan to do so. Imagine a rookie, taking a dynasty, with legends like Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, Rajon Rondo, and Ray Allen to Game 7 in a postseason series. The Chicago born was so promising to watch that even Michael Jordan said that the Bulls would be winning six more championships.
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After the Bulls lost to the stacked Miami Heat in the 2011 Conference Finals, Bulls fans were heartbroken. However, they smelled the scent of a glorious future with young Rose on their side. Even Jordan believed, and rightfully so, that the Bulls were going to be champions in the near future. “You guys[Chicago fans] are in store for a lot of other Championships. You look at this team[the then Bulls] tonight…Don’t be surprised if you gon’ have 6 more coming,” said MJ on the podium in United Center. Perhaps Jordan would have been right, had fate not played its part.
Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce share their take on Derrick Rose
Boston Celtics in the 2008-09 season were the first team to actually taste the ashes of the volcano that Rose was. On their Showtime podcast, “KG Certified: Ticket & The Truth”, Garnett and Pierce sat down and reminisced about a young Derrick Rose. KG was hurt in the first-round series, but saw Rose from the bench. Pierce, on the other hand, had the first-hand experience of playing a rookie Rose. This is what both former Boston Celtics NBA champions had to say about the former Bulls player;
Garnett said, during the podcast:
“He was a problem day one man. The one thing that stood out about D Rose right away, was although he was quiet, man he spoke the language. He was built for it. He was built for the position, he was built for the moment, he was built to have the GOAT on his back like that.”
Paul Pierce added:
“I ain’t never seen a point guard that athletic though. When he did, one of them game, he did the dunk on the breakaway. He rocked it and cradled it and then dunked it. I was like, ‘Whoa, point guards is doing that now?”
In his playoff debut, Rose scored 36 points against Celtics in a 105-103 win. Even as a rookie, he averaged 19.7 points while he shot 47.5% from the field. He also averaged 6.3 assists and 4.9 rebounds in the series. To this day, the series remains a legend, and the hero was someone who fought to his last breath.
The fall of a potential legend, Derrick Rose’s career so far
Despite being only 34 years old, we might be seeing the end of Rose’s career. Starting his NBA career with a bang, the 2008 Rookie of The Year didn’t have the trajectory that he wanted. After playing seven seasons with the Bulls, Rose was finally traded to the New York Knicks in 2016, after he suffered his ACL injury in the 2011-12 season.
In the 2013-14 season, he suffered a tore meniscus in his right knee. That was it, Derrick was never the same. After playing with the Knicks, he joined LeBron James in Cleveland, but was traded the same year to the Timberwolves. After that, he was traded to the Detroit Pistons where he played for two seasons only to return to the Knicks again. Rose had some late success there and became a crowd favorite. However, he signed for the Memphis Grizzlies on July 3, 2023.
We will never know what the NBA would have looked like if Rose didn’t get injured. Yes, he might have very well changed the narrative and the landscape of the league. He might have played with the legacies of players like LeBron and D Wade. However, if nothing, we have seen a hero in him. Despite the career-ending setbacks with injuries and personal life, he has risen from the ashes like a phoenix. He was a hero and he will always remain a hero for many.
