The Cautionary Tale of Derrick Rose
Sometimes, you could do everything right and still fail. But this is not weakness.
Six years ago, Derrick Rose had a big smile on his face. He was hoisting the MVP trophy in the air, the youngest player in history to ever do so. His Chicago Bulls were strong-arming their way past the competition, putting other championship contenders on notice, and he was in the driver’s seat for it all — a great player with a shining future.
Now, they’re all gone: the smile, the play of an MVP, the hope of a bright future as a basketball player.
Earlier last week, it was announced that Derrick Rose would be taking some time away from the Cleveland Cavaliers to reevaluate his current career and contemplate retirement from the NBA. The last half decade has arguably been rougher on Rose than any other individual in the league — his body has undergone drastic wear and tear that not has not only affected his game, but his psyche as well. He joined the Cleveland Cavaliers in the off-season on a bargain contract with the hope that playing alongside LeBron James would revitalize his career. But not even the King could help.
It’s a shame to see how far he’s fallen. As the 22-year old MVP, Rose looked like he could do it all: he leapt high, he ran fast, he dunked hard. There was a dynamism to his game that simply induced excitement, a near-palpable electricity that was shared by any fans who witnessed him. For the first time since Michael Jordan’s era, Chicago Bulls basketball was must-watch television. The number one pick of the 2008, Rose was supposed to be the man who would fill in those Air Jordans and lead the Bulls back to championship glory.
It’s easy to forget that during his MVP year, the Bulls had a league-leading 62–20 record. Rose himself had 2,000 points and 600 assists — only the third player in history to amass such numbers in one season. For a guard, he jumped like his feet were propelled by rockets and routinely blocked taller players. He would dazzle opponents with flashy handles one second, and then slam the ball home before they could decide which way to spin. He was a basketball phenom, admirably filling in an inspiring rags-to-riches narrative.
But for all his transcendent skills, Rose’s body was as mortal as any other’s. Like an engine that simply overheated, Rose’s legs blew out beneath him, unable to support the pressure that his skills and talent exerted upon them. If anything, Rose’s current situation is a rare conundrum: the result of doing too much, rather than too little.
First, he tore his ACL in 2012, and while he sat out a whole season, no one doubted he could be back with a vengeance. But then he was injured in 2013, and again in 2014. The cuts and scratches added up, and as time wore on, the explosive Derrick Rose as we knew him faded into the background, overtaken by other names like Curry and Westbrook.
His move to New York in 2016 was supposed to be a kind of revival. The big name and big city looked like a perfect partnership on paper. But the experiment soon blew up in the Knicks’ faces; Carmelo Anthony and Rose just couldn’t carry the team, and they were soon tanking their way through the season. Off-court matters exacerbated difficulties; Rose was involved in a rape trial (where he was eventually found not guilty) and once abandoned his team without notice to attend to a personal matter.
The names and labels started coming: soft, weak, selfish.
This Cleveland stint was supposed to be the one to get him back on track. After all, what former MVP at 29 years old — prime years, as far as NBA standards go — would accept a veteran’s minimum contract, where others of his supposed caliber are raking in the big bucks? An Eastern Conference contender like the Cavaliers was supposed to help Rose regain steady footing, and in the best-case scenario, give him a role in fighting for another banner.
As we’ve seen through the first twenty-plus games of the season, that’s not even happening. The Cavs started off extremely slow, going 5–7 out of the gates and boasting the league’s worst defense, during which Rose averaged a mediocre 14–3–2 stat line. But then he was injured yet again — his ankle, this time — and, somehow, Cavaliers put it all together and ripped off an eleven-game winning streak. It was addition by subtraction; without Rose, the team just began performing better. They simply didn’t need him.
NBA’s history is filled with cautionary tales of players who just looked like they would be great, but ended up fizzing away due to the high physical costs — Brandon Roy, Greg Oden, Yao Ming. By far, Derrick Rose’s fall has been the sharpest and the saddest, if only because of how good he was. Not long ago, the jersey sales were soaring, the Adidas endorsements were filling up the bank account. And now he’s contemplating retirement, his fall from grace apparently taking a toll on his spirit as much as his body.
Mind you, this fall isn’t all necessarily his fault. Sure, you could argue that he allowed his troubles off court to cloud his focus, but in the end, his body’s deterioration was simply the result of too much talent. Too much explosiveness, too much effort. More than muscles and bones and ACL’s are supposed to be able to manage. And this is despite having the best doctors, trainers, and physical therapists in the world at his disposal.
In a way, this struggle is representative of the struggles that many face in their endeavors for greatness. One could do everything right — plan the right moves, make wise decisions in the middle of all the action as well as in down times — and still fall short. Sometimes, bad luck catches up. Sometimes, one’s spirit is willing, but the body — and the physical realities we face — don’t match up.
If he does retire soon — Rose could still return, and nothing is set in stone— he will have many options to stay involved with basketball. He never had a reputation as an academic, but that doesn’t mean that options to coach or to manage will be closed off to him. He can learn. Likewise, he can also opt to search for success outside of the NBA.
In the end, Derrick Rose’s legacy will have its bright spots, and the time he spent in Chicago will always be considered a highlight for Bulls fans who waited years for a return to relevance. But more so than this, we ought to take away one of the harsher realities of sports and in life: That no matter how hard we try, there will be things outside our control. All we can do is the best we can with the hands we’re dealt.
Derrick Rose may have fallen, but he’s living out the lesson that will help him get up again. It may not be in a basketball jersey, but he can get up again.
