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The NBA apparently settled one debate Tuesday in naming the trophy for the Most Valuable Player trophy, the league’s highest individual honor, for Michael Jordan.
I’ll settle another involving an MVP, former Bulls star Derrick Rose, who’ll be in the United Center Wednesday and Friday with the New York Knicks.
The only Bulls player in franchise history other than Jordan to win the MVP award will eventually be enshrined in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame.
Rose would join from Bulls franchise history in the Basketball Hall of Fame among those who played significant parts of their careers with the Bulls just Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Artis Gilmore, Chet Walker and Toni Kukoč.
Rose’s Basketball Hall of Fame worthiness has been subject of debate because every eligible NBA player ever to win a MVP is in the Hall of Fame. Every player who has won the award since Rose in 2011 is certain to be voted into the Hall of Fame. The hesitation regarding Rose has been the condensed period of Rose’s brilliance with the Bulls, four excellent seasons and three straight All-Star selections before his devastating anterior cruciate injury in the 2012 playoffs.
That Rose still is playing a decade later, even if currently not in the regular rotation of the often dysfunctional Knicks, is a remarkable testament to his abilities and commitment to the game. And hardly as a bystander. Rose placed third in 2021 in the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year annual voting for best reserve player. And in the four seasons before this since Rose was virtually dismissed as an NBA player, he’s averaged more than 16 points per game despite averaging only about 26 minutes per game off the bench.
Which isn’t Hall of Fame numbers.
But with other Hall of Famers whose careers were shortened and came back in limited roles, like Bill Walton and Grant Hill, Rose’s career body of work is manifestly Hall Fame worthy.
Obviously, there is the Most Valuable Player award.
It almost means entry because for one year, and in Rose’s case right in the middle of the prime of LeBron James’ career when Rose interrupted a run of what could have been five consecutive MVP awards, Rose was universally regarded as the best player in the world.
Only a fraction of Hall of Famers ever have reached that level.
But what is most often forgotten about the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame—and what is just as significant—is in the spirit of its namesake it represents all of basketball around the world and at every level. It is not the NBA Hall of Fame. But that’s also why the Naismith Hall of Fame perhaps is more significant than any of the others representing American team sports. Because it acknowledges there is more to the world than the United States, as quaint as that might seem to some.
Rose from South Side Englewood begins in high school, where it seems every NBA player has won a championship. Rose’s Simeon High School won consecutive state titles, which is no small feat coming out of the competitive Chicago Public League. It was the first Simeon title in more than 20 years since the run of the late Ben Wilson. As a junior, Rose wearing Wilson’s No. 25 made the winning shot in the state championship game. And as a senior in what I always saw as even a greater championship moment, Rose scored two points in the championship game. He manipulated the victory as point guard, but held down his scoring so teammates had better opportunities for scholarships. He’d long has his as the nation’s No. 1 prospect.
Rose later did the same thing his one year at the University of Memphis, leading the team to the No. 1 ranking in the country for the first time in 25 years and then within seconds of the national championship when his Memphis team lost in overtime to perennial powerhouse Kansas. Again, Rose moderated his scoring to about 15 points per game in the regular season so his teammates could be featured. As a result, Joey Dorsey and Chris Douglas-Roberts from that team were selected in the NBA draft the same year as Rose. Both had brief NBA careers.
Rose also has two gold medals from championships with USA Basketball. He played significant roles with the 2010 and 2014 USA teams that won the FIBA Basketball World Championships, the most importart world basketball tournament before the Olympics.
And, of course, there’s Rose’s flashing comet of an NBA career.
It was blazing hot for four seasons which were as good as almost any in that young stretch of a career, especially beginning at age 20.
Rose was NBA Rookie of the Year and in his first playoff game tied the record of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for most points in a rookie playoff debut. The Bulls Game 1 win led by Rose upended the first round series and took the defending champion Boston Celtics seven games to knock out the Bulls.
The powerfully built 6-3 Rose always had the potential to be a great scorer, but in the interest of success and being a great teammate he usually deferred. Just about every player says it, but Rose actually did it. Because when he had to score he suddenly became one of the best scorers in the NBA.
In 2010-11, his third NBA season at age 22, Rose averaged more than 25 points per game in winning the Most Valuable Player award and 21.8 the following season when Rose led the generally star-less Bulls without another future Hall of Famer to the best record in the NBA for the second consecutive season. And like the greats do, Rose increased his scoring in the playoffs even as scores decreased. Rose averaged 26.8 in the 2010 playoffs against the Cavs and LeBron James and 27.1 in the 2011 playoffs. And even coming back after several knee surgeries, he averaged more than 20 points in a dozen games in the 2015 playoffs.
By then, Rose had a Hall of Fame worthy companion in Jimmy Butler, who was not a rotation player earlier. In 2011 when the Bulls led the league in wins, including over the James/Dwyane Wade super Miami team, Rose didn’t have a teammate who was an All-Star. In 2012, Luol Deng became an All-Star, but he’s not considered a Hall of Fame-level player like James’ teammates.
Like Tom Thibodeau used to say about the 2011 Bulls, “that team won 62 games with Keith Bogans starting 82 games at shooting guard.” Well, a Rose and Bogans backcourt.
Rose’s run of excellence and three consecutive All-Star games was cut short by that 2012 knee injury and several more surgeries to follow.
But in a testament to what all halls of fame are about, the journey and the desire, Rose rose from the depths of injury and dismissal to become a high level contributor to a rare Knicks playoff team in demonstrating his commitment to the game. A decade after that knee surgery and five years after he virtually was dismissed from the game, Rose remains capable, a willing contributor and supportive teammate in going from the best in the game to a reserve role in the best interests of the team.
It’s also often messy to make comparisons. And sometimes it’s viewed as a condemnation of others. It should not be.
Because as deserving as the comparable players to Rose are of being in the Hall of Fame, so is Rose.
Though Rose hasn’t played for an NBA championship team, his 2011 Bulls team went to the conference finals and the second round in 2015 when his Game 3 game winner almost propelled the Bulls past LeBron and Cleveland and his latest Big Three.
Tracy McGrady, for example, was a great scorer but never on a winning playoff team. Hall of Famers Tim Hardaway and Mitch Richmond similarly had playoff failures, Hardaway finally having some success after serious injury when he was more of a support player in Miami. Bucks Hall of Famer Sidney Moncrief had an injury-shortened run. He did make All-Star five times in that period, but never achieved anywhere near the individual and international honors Rose did. Bob McAdoo long was that MVP denied the Hall of Fame after a long career going from high scoring starter with poor teams for six years to 20-minute-per-game reserve.
They surely are deserving Hall of Famers.
Because the Hall of Fame also is a compendium of a player’s contributions to the game at the prep, collegiate, pro and international level and an accumulation of his honors, Rose’s longevity in also being able to score 50 points in an NBA game seven years after his major knee injury and his impact on the sport is significant since Rose remains one of the most popular players in the NBA and worldwide through product sales.
It’s a resume which the Basketball Hall of Fame is all about. Once again, welcome back to Chicago Derrick Rose.
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