Congratulations to Derrick Rose on retiring after an iconic career.
D-Rose played eight seasons with the Bulls and went on to play short stints with the Knicks, Cavs, T-Wolves, Pistons, and Grizzlies.
What D-Rose will be remembered for, however, is being one of the biggest what-ifs in sports history:
What if Derrick Rose never got injured in the 2012 playoffs?
After being drafted with the first pick in the 2008 NBA draft, Rose brought Chicago to the playoffs in his rookie season while winning Rookie of the Year. The next season, D-Rose made the All-Star team and brought the Bulls back to the playoffs for the second straight year. In the 2010-11 season, Rose became the youngest league MVP in NBA history at just 22 years old and brought the Bulls to their first Eastern Conference Finals since the Jordan era.
A year and another All-Star appearance later, Derrick Rose tore his ACL in game one of the playoffs after carrying Chicago to the best regular season record in the NBA.
The Bulls went on to lose the series in six, and Derrick Rose was never the same again.
If not for Miami’s Big 3 in 2011, D-Rose would’ve gone to the finals to face off against Dirk’s Mavericks. Think about that. It took LeBron, D-Wade, and Chris Bosh to stop a 22-year-old D-Rose from carrying a half-decent Bulls team to the Finals.
What’s even crazier to think back on is why Derrick was still in the game when he was injured in 2012.
Harlan said it best on the call. Rose was injured “late in a game that [was] already decided, for all intents and purposes”.
Tom Thibodeau’s choice to keep him in the game is a horse long dead and beaten, so I won’t dive deep into the topic, but it makes you think. If D-Rose hadn’t played those final possessions, would he have injured his knee at all, or was his knee a ticking time bomb waiting to blow? I think placing the blame on Thibs is harsh, but shouldn’t he take a portion of it?
I digress. This isn’t supposed to be an article grilling Coaches for their decisions, or placing blame for an injury that happened over 12 years ago. This is an article about the greatness of Derrick Rose. So, I’ll leave you with some highlights to reminisce about his time in the NBA: