Derrick Rose's No. 1 jersey has been immortalized in the rafters of the United Center.
"While no player will wear No. 1 for the Chicago Bulls again, the city will wear it forever."
That line kicked off the jersey retirement ceremony for franchise legend Derrick Rose, who saw his iconic No. 1 unveiled in the United Center rafters on Saturday night. Rose became the fifth player in Chicago Bulls history to receive the honor, joining Jerry Sloan, Bob Love, Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen.
The Chicago native spent eight seasons with his hometown team from 2008 to 2016. Rose's ceremony featured speeches from Bulls teammates Joakim Noah, Taj Gibson and Luol Deng, as well as his former coach, Tom Thibodeau.
Rose grew up in Englewood on the South Side of Chicago and attended Simeon Academy. He played one season at the University of Memphis before the Bulls selected him with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2008 NBA Draft.
The young point guard quickly rose to stardom, winning Rookie of the Year in 2009 and earning his first All-Star nod in 2010. Rose then became the youngest player in NBA history to win the league's Most Valuable Player award, taking home the honor as a 22-year-old in his third professional season.
Despite Rose's excellence, the Bulls fell to the Miami Heat in the Eastern Conference Finals. Tragedy struck the following season, when Chicago's young star tore his ACL in the first game of the 2012 NBA Playoffs.
The injury permanently altered the course of his career. Rose battled multiple knee injuries over the next few seasons before the Bulls traded him to the New York Knicks in 2016. He received Sixth Man of the Year votes with the Timberwolves in 2019 and the Pistons in 2020, then returned to the Knicks and finished his career with the Grizzlies in 2024. Rose also played 16 games for the Cavaliers in 2018.
Over seven seasons in Chicago that included 406 games played, Rose averaged 19.7 points, 6.2 assists and 3.7 rebounds per game. His memorable 2010-11 MVP season featured a stat line of 25.0 points, 7.7 assists, 4.1 rebounds and 1.0 steals per game as the key cog of a Bulls team that went 62-20.
In the end, Derrick Rose's career will always be about what could have been. The explosive, athletic point guard was robbed of a healthy career by a laundry list of catastrophic injuries, but the impact that Rose left on his hometown team and the city in which he was raised extends far beyond the basketball court.