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Derrick Rose’s career is full of what-ifs, but the real miracle is the fact that it lasted this long

Derrick Rose’s career is full of what-ifs, but the real miracle is the fact that it lasted this long

Vaseline 1 month ago

The word that comes to mind, or rather the core of everything with Derrick Rose, is focus.

It takes an inordinate amount of focus to walk a treacherous path to even reach a professional level and even more steel to elevate.

For Rose, the Chicago native who quietly announced his retirement Thursday morning — taking out ads in the newspapers of the cities where he played — it’s more than just focus, because his career has been so winding, so enchanting, and sometimes so damning. confusing.

He will likely be the only Most Valuable Player in NBA history not to make the Naismith Hall of Fame, even if he has a case just by leaving his mark on the game. Hopefully the Bulls will retire his jersey, even though they have inexplicably given away the No. 1 pick a few times since his 2016 trade to the New York Knicks.

That matters, but only to a limited extent for Chicago – a city that is as tough in itself as it is warm about the same numbers on which it has impossible expectations. You’d be hard-pressed to find a relationship between player and city so complicated, so layered, and yet so valuable to the overall culture and sense that Rose was married to Chicago.

BOSTON, MA - JANUARY 22: Derrick Rose #1 of the Chicago Bulls watches during the second quarter against the Boston Celtics at TD Garden on January 22, 2016 in Boston, Massachusetts. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that by downloading and/or using this photo, user agrees to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images)BOSTON, MA - JANUARY 22: Derrick Rose #1 of the Chicago Bulls watches during the second quarter against the Boston Celtics at TD Garden on January 22, 2016 in Boston, Massachusetts. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that by downloading and/or using this photo, user agrees to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images)

Derrick Rose was the league’s MVP before his body failed him. (Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images)

Even LeBron James — who grew up not in Cleveland but in Akron, about 35 minutes from downtown — doesn’t connect with Chicago in the same way Rose does.

When he “made it,” and not by being named MVP in 2011 or any other accolade he received during his too-brief heyday, but by her mere existence, Chicago was happy. Everything else was the icing on the cake.

For most.

Since Michael Jordan left the building in June 1998, there have been only so many things for the Bulls to cheer about, and Rose seemed to write or co-write 80 percent of them. There was a time when you could question Rose’s 2011 MVP, but in retrospect any lawsuit seems like folly, and there have been others since then that were worth more investigation.

Just like before he was introduced to basketball’s world stage as a late teenager, the story then, and in 2011, was the same: You had to be there.

Rose was not as maniacal as Russell Westbrook, and perhaps not built to take punishment better than his basketball son, Ja Morant. Rose was not the first of its kind, but was one of a kind when it was in full bloom.

The belief in the son of Chicago was so strong that it would be difficult to convince many that he alone could not take down Miami’s holy trinity of James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh – at the height of their powers .

And when, predictably, that didn’t work, the streamers and arrows began to form a line. And when his body failed him, as it does with bigger, stronger men, more criticism came.

But it seems so long ago, those years Rose missed after that ACL injury on a Saturday afternoon in 2012, as the Bulls began their playoff march toward another showdown with the hated Heat, in Game 1 of their first round against the Philadelphia 76ers. .

It’s a testament to Rose’s perseverance and, yes, focus, that those memories seem like they belong to another shadowy figure, not the elder statesman who moved on to other franchises and sometimes performed magic in different jerseys. It didn’t feel right that the MVP was demoted to bit player or the guy Knicks fans were clamoring for at the end of his second stint with the Knicks.

That dogged nature, that quiet determination allowed him to deal with his body’s missteps, and of course his own indiscretions that put him in the crosshairs of an ugly civil lawsuit in 2016 when he and his friends were sued for alleged sexual abuse.

He was found not liable, but the details changed his image forever in the minds of some, if not more. Believing in him became more of a challenge, though not impossible.

A man of few words, but usually of clear words, he did not always get his message across in the way many thought he should have. In some ways he was a mirror to Chicago, showing all the ugliness, yet all the promise that many refused to give up. Everything became attached to him because not only was he fighting a losing battle against a ruthless machine, but he also didn’t seem to care that the machine would always win.

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Rose would move on as the NBA changed from a league that seemed to suit his style to one that embraced a new way of playing. Considering the atrophy of his body—both from the hard torque as he contorted it to work through tight spaces on NBA floors to the pre-existing damage he likely entered the league with after navigating the competitive terrain of Chicago and the AAU— had navigated jobs, it seems unlikely that Rose’s focus will last long enough to endure.

The difference between great players remaining great and experiencing the least amount of regression feels like a matter of focus. This is certainly the case for championship teams who no longer have the ability to hold for extended periods of time, but can occasionally produce a night or two that looks like old glory.

Rose seemed to seize it in 2015, when he and the Bulls had James’ Cavaliers on the ropes — a buzzer-beater on Friday night in the East semifinals that had many believing Rose would rise again.

The pressure of a game winner felt like nothing compared to shooting money with frozen fingertips in his old Englewood neighborhood so he could invoke greatness on demand and capture the imagination one more time.

But the old glory couldn’t last, and it looked like his career would fade away, like so many whose only basketball sin was having a body that couldn’t house the engine of a Ferrari, like Grant Hill and Penny Hardaway.

Rose navigated that for years, somehow grabbing that glory every now and then, occasionally breaking from his stoic nature to unleash unexpected tears after nights of triumph, like his 50-point game with the Minnesota Timberwolves in the 2018-2019 season.

That was a year after Rose temporarily stepped away from the game following a brief stint with James’ Cavaliers, contemplating retirement after an ankle injury that was too reminiscent of past ailments.

When Rose was a Knick, he disappeared from the franchise without explanation, missed a game and apologized to the team when he returned.

He walked to the edge, but somehow managed to pick himself up, reinvent himself and create a new basketball life for himself, away from the expectations that traditionally follow stars. A sixth man was the suit he wore in his early 30s when he played (for the second time) in Minnesota, Detroit and New York.

The promise and what-ifs were replaced by a mental stamina and a refusal to accept that his body could no longer perform, and that the NBA was no longer a place for him.

Those moments seem so far away, almost as if he played three different careers before finally calling it a day, less than a week before his 36th birthday.

He’s stepping away to focus more on being a husband and father and getting more out of his basketball body than so many of us predicted a decade ago.

Promise turns into perseverance through relentless focus.