50 Fun Facts About Derrick Rose

Derrick Rose in 2011 became only the second Chicago Bulls player to win NBA MVP, after which legend?

Michael Jordan won five MVP awards in Chicago before Rose added a sixth for the franchise. Rose was 22, the youngest winner in league history.

At which school did Derrick Rose play one college season, reaching the 2008 national title game?

Memphis won 38 games with Rose as a freshman, then a record for one season. The NCAA later wiped every one of them from the books.

Which knee ligament did Derrick Rose tear in the 2012 playoffs, costing him all of the next season?

ACL in the left knee: Rose tore it with 1:22 left in a playoff opener that his team led by 12 points. He had surgery two weeks later.

Which sportswear brand gave Derrick Rose a 2012 contract extension reported at $185 million?

Adidas had first signed Rose as a rookie in 2008 for about $1 million a year. Its D Rose signature line was still adding new models a decade later.

For which team did Derrick Rose score a career-high 50 points on Halloween night in 2018?

Minnesota Timberwolves teammates mobbed a tearful Rose after he sealed the win with a block as time expired. It was his first start of the season.

Which board game is Derrick Rose known across the NBA for playing avidly away from the court?

Chess has no bigger fanatic in the NBA than Rose, in the judgment of The Sporting News.

Derrick Rose in 2012 became a part-owner and spokesman of which Chicago chain known for stuffed deep-dish pizza?

Giordano's was founded in Chicago in 1974 by two brothers working from their mother's recipe. Rose grew up on the city's South Side.

Which position did Derrick Rose play, attacking the rim so explosively that he was NBA MVP at 22?

Point guard Rose stood 6 ft 3 in and recorded a 40-inch vertical leap at the 2008 NBA Combine.

Besides "D-Rose", which nickname shared with a storybook bear is used for Derrick Rose?

Pooh sits beside a far fiercer nickname for Rose: the Windy City Assassin.

Derrick Rose won gold medals with the United States in 2010 and 2014 at which international tournament?

FIBA World Cup golds bookended Rose's worst injuries: the first came just before his MVP season, the second after two lost years.

Which coach recruited Derrick Rose to college after seeing him play AAU ball, later leaving for Kentucky?

John Calipari sold Rose on a program with a record of sending players to the NBA. Rose stayed one season and reached the national final.

Which school beat Derrick Rose's college team in overtime in the 2008 NCAA championship game?

Kansas trailed by nine with two minutes left, then tied the game on a three-pointer with 2.1 seconds to play.

Whose three-pointer with 2.1 seconds left forced overtime against Derrick Rose's team in the 2008 NCAA final?

Mario Chalmers hit the shot moments after Rose missed the first of two free throws that could have put the title out of reach.

Why did the NCAA strip Derrick Rose's college team of its entire 38-win 2007–08 season?

A voided SAT score made Rose retroactively ineligible, even though his school had investigated the claim and cleared him to play.

Derrick Rose wore No. 23 in college because his usual 25 was retired for which 1990s Orlando Magic star?

Penny Hardaway had his 25 retired by the school in 1994, and in 2018 he came back to coach the same program.

Derrick Rose wore No. 25 in high school to honor which murdered star of the same Chicago school?

Ben Wilson was rated the nation's top high school player when he was shot in 1984. Rose was the last to wear his number before it was retired.

At which Chicago high school did Derrick Rose win back-to-back Illinois state titles in 2006 and 2007?

Simeon went 120–12 during Rose's four years and became the first Chicago Public League school to win two straight state crowns.

Which future No. 2 NBA draft pick later won four state titles at Derrick Rose's Chicago high school?

Jabari Parker scrimmaged with Rose on a sixth-grade visit to the school, then enrolled and won the state championship every year.

Which forward went second in the 2008 NBA draft, right after the Chicago Bulls chose Derrick Rose?

Michael Beasley was left for the next team because Chicago had won the lottery with only a 1.7 percent chance at the top pick.

In which South Side Chicago neighborhood did Derrick Rose grow up, taught the game by three older brothers?

Englewood courts were where brothers Dwayne, Reggie and Allan taught Rose the game, while their mother kept outside recruiters away from him.

Derrick Rose in 2009 was the first number-one draft pick since which player to win NBA Rookie of the Year?

LeBron James won the award in 2004, and the next four top picks all missed out before Rose averaged 16.8 points for a playoff team.

At the 2009 NBA All-Star Weekend, Derrick Rose became the first rookie to win which event?

Skills Challenge victory meant Rose had beaten several All-Stars, months before he was voted the league's best first-year player.

Derrick Rose scored 36 in his 2009 playoff debut, an overtime road win over which defending champion?

Boston Celtics won the series in seven games, but Rose's opening night tied Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's record for a rookie in a playoff debut.

Which coach guided Derrick Rose's MVP season in Chicago and later reunited with him on two other NBA teams?

Tom Thibodeau was in his first year as a head coach that season and was named Coach of the Year after 62 wins.

Which former NBA guard was head coach of the Chicago Bulls for Derrick Rose's first two seasons?

Vinny Del Negro went 41–41 and made the playoffs in both seasons, yet Chicago dismissed him in May 2010.

Derrick Rose in 2011 broke which Hall of Fame center's 42-year-old record as the NBA's youngest MVP?

Wes Unseld won it as a 23-year-old rookie in 1969, and no younger winner appeared until Rose, at 22.

Which team beat Derrick Rose's 62-win Chicago Bulls in five games, one round short of the 2011 NBA Finals?

Miami Heat closed the series by erasing a 12-point deficit in the final three minutes of Game 5, winning 83–80.

Which Chicago Bulls forward scored a career-high 40 points in 2010 on a night Derrick Rose had 13 assists?

Luol Deng, who fled Sudan as a child, became an All-Star beside Rose in 2012, giving Chicago its first pair of All-Stars since 1997.

The NBA's 2011 "Derrick Rose Rule" lets a decorated young star coming off a rookie deal sign what?

A larger max contract, 30 percent of the salary cap rather than the standard 25, was open to Rose alone when the rule arrived, thanks to his MVP.

On Christmas Day 2011, Derrick Rose's floater with 4.8 seconds left beat which team 88–87?

Los Angeles Lakers were the opponents in the first game of a season cut to 66 games by a lockout, so the shot won opening night.

Derrick Rose's comeback ended in November 2013 with which new injury, this time to his right knee?

A torn meniscus needed surgery three days later, and Rose tore the same cartilage again in February 2015.

Derrick Rose banked in a buzzer-beating three to win Game 3 of a 2015 playoff series against which team?

Cleveland Cavaliers still won the series in six games, and two years later Rose signed with them for a minimum salary.

Why did Derrick Rose begin the 2015–16 NBA season, his last in Chicago, wearing a protective face mask?

An orbital fracture came in the preseason, and Rose later blamed his shooting struggles on depth-perception trouble after the eye surgery.

Which offensive system did Derrick Rose call confusing during his 2016–17 season with the New York Knicks?

Triangle offense was coach Jeff Hornacek's assignment that year, and the team finished 31–51 and missed the playoffs.

Which longtime Chicago Bulls center followed Derrick Rose to the New York Knicks in the summer of 2016?

Joakim Noah signed a four-year, $72 million deal with his hometown team less than three weeks after Rose was traded there.

Which team acquired Derrick Rose in a three-team trade in February 2018, then waived him two days later?

Utah Jazz management never put Rose in uniform, but within a month he had a new team and was soon back in the playoffs.

With which team did Derrick Rose sign in 2019 and reel off seven straight 20-point games as a reserve?

Detroit Pistons history had no reserve with a run like it, and it sat inside a career-best 14 straight games of 20 or more for Rose.

Derrick Rose placed third in 2021 voting for which NBA award after a midseason return to the Knicks?

Sixth Man of the Year voters rewarded a reserve who helped New York climb to fourth in the East and reach the playoffs.

Derrick Rose led the New York Knicks in scoring in a 2021 first-round playoff loss to which team?

Atlanta Hawks won in five games, though Rose scored a team-high 26 in Game 2 after being moved into the lineup at halftime.

Which jersey number did the Chicago Bulls retire in January 2026 in honor of Derrick Rose?

The number 1 that Rose wore for eight seasons in Chicago went into the rafters 16 months after he announced his retirement.

In which arena did Derrick Rose star for the Chicago Bulls after winning a city title there in high school?

United Center hosted the 2006 Chicago Public League final, where Rose scored 25 points as a junior, two years before turning pro.

Derrick Rose scored 24 points in February 2016 to spoil which retiring legend's final game in Chicago?

Kobe Bryant was on a season-long farewell tour, and Rose led all Chicago scorers in the 126–115 win.

Which high-flying forward joined Derrick Rose and Kevin Durant on the cover of the video game NBA 2K13?

Blake Griffin and his two cover partners were all shown in mid-dunk, in a game whose executive producer was Jay-Z.

Derrick Rose called the 2016–17 Knicks a super team with Kristaps Porziņģis and which star forward?

Carmelo Anthony and the Knicks won only 31 games that season, and Rose left as a free agent in the summer.

Which fellow Chicago native did Derrick Rose outduel with 34 points in a 99–96 win in January 2011?

Dwyane Wade saw Rose score 11 of those points in the fourth quarter, midway through Rose's MVP season.

Which Chicago Bulls forward shared NBA Rookie of the Year honors in 2000, nine years before Derrick Rose won?

Elton Brand, a first overall pick like Rose, split the award with Houston guard Steve Francis.

Derrick Rose's college team reached the 2008 NCAA tournament at 33–1 after winning which league's tournament?

Conference USA rivals could not stop a team that opened 26–0 and climbed to its first No. 1 ranking in over 25 years.

Before Derrick Rose in 2009, which guard alone had 35 points and 10 assists in an NBA playoff debut?

Chris Paul was the first, and Rose matched the feat with 11 assists in an overtime road win over the defending champions.

Which future NBA guard led Rice High School past Derrick Rose's team at Madison Square Garden in 2007?

Kemba Walker's side won 53–51, one of only two losses in Rose's senior season.

Which school ended the 26–0 start of Derrick Rose's top-ranked college team in February 2008?

Tennessee won 66–62, the only defeat Rose's team suffered before the national championship game.