About Derrick Rose

This lens about Derrick Rose provides some biographical highlights, Derrick Rose videos, Derrick Rose pictures, wallpapers and much more. Whether you are a long-time Derrick Rose fan or newly discovered his amazing basketball ability, you should find something to enjoy here.

Derrick Rose (born October 4, 1988) grew up on the South Side of Chicago in the Englewood neighborhood with his mother, Brenda, and his three older brothers Dwayne, Reggie and Allan. Englewood is a tough neighborhood in Chicago but with a strong mother and three brothers that guarded and protected Derrick, he was able to navigate these mean streets and graduate from Simeon Career Academy with back-to-back state championships. For more on his high school story and family life check out this Sports Illustrated story.

Coming out of high school, Derrick Rose was a 5 star basketball recruit. He was a team player in high school and as a result he only averaged 25 points per game but also averaged 8.8 assists. That is probably why he was only rated as the 5th best player coming out of high school in 2007. The four people that were rated ahead of him all turned out to be very good players in the NBA (O.J. Mayo, Michael Beasley, Kevin Love and Eric Gordon), but Rose has far outperformed all of them. Here is the list of the Top Recruits from Scout for 2007. What the recruiting analysts missed was that to Derrick it was not all about Derrick Rose, it was all about winning and he captured two state Championships for Simeon.

Derrick Rose chose University of Memphis over Kansas, Illinois, Indiana and DePaul. He played one year for the Memphis Tigers. Rose and the Tigers went 38-2 made it to the NCAA Championship Game but lost in overtime of a tough game, 75-68. At Memphis, Rose averaged 14.9 ppg, 4.7 apg and 4.5 rpg. While not overpowering numbers, Rose was starting as a freshman on a very good Memphis team loaded with talent. After his freshman season, Rose chose to enter the 2008 NBA Draft knowing that he was a surefire Top 5 pick.

However, college was not without its troubles and after leaving school, a story broke about Derrick Rose that he may have been involved with improper SAT test scores while at Simeon. The Kansas Jayhawks sent a letter to the NCAA stating that they believed that someone may have taken Rose's SAT test for him. Later there was an investigation of student athletes at Simeon that found that four basketball players received one month grade boosts during 2007. After their investigation in 2008, the NCAA concluded that Memphis had knowledge of wrongdoing in Rose's test scores and they were forced to vacate their 2007-2008 season tarnishing his college record.

In an incredible stroke of luck, the Chicago Bulls won the #1 pick in the NBA lottery, despite only having a 1.7% chance of winning that top spot. Given that Rose was from Chicago and had the talent to create a second coming of Michael Jordon, Derrick Rose was the obvious first choice for the #1 Pick. In hindsight, the choice has proven brilliant and immediately put the Bulls back into playoff contention.

In his three years in the NBA, Derrick Rose has improved his stats each year including ppg, apg and rpg. Points have improved from 16.8 to 25 per game. Assists and Rebounds have also improved from 6.3 to 7.7 apg and 3.9 to 4.1 rpg. The team has also improved its performance since Rose arrived. In his rookie season after winning the Rookie of the Year award, Rose's Bulls lost in the first round of the playoffs in a tough seven game series with the Boston Celtics. In his second year, the Bulls lost in the first round to the Cleveland Cavaliers in five games.

Finally in 2010-2011, Rose's third year in the game, the Bulls won two tough playoff series agains the Indiana Pacers and the Atlanta Hawks to face the Miami Heat in the Eastern Conference Finals. While averaging 27 ppg in the Miami series, Rose only shot 39% because the Heat played stingy defense centered on Rose during the entire series. The Heat won the series in five games and exposed the young Bulls as one dimensional with a strong need for a second star to take pressure off of Derrick Rose.