CHICAGO — Derrick Rose figured all sorts of emotions would flow when he saw his banner soar to the rafters.
The Chicago Bulls were set to retire his No. 1 following their game against the Boston Celtics on Saturday night. And the kid who went from growing up in a rough South Side neighborhood to starring for his hometown team was ready for the moment.
“I had someone or a journalist ask me, ‘Man, did you cry?’ I told him I cry every day,” Rose said. “And he asked about what. Being joyful, knowing where I grew up, knowing my coming back here, my being practical with knowing the economy, with me being there, and the neighborhoods. And you just know.
“That’s one of the reasons why I came back, is to curate things and to employ people.”
Rose joins Michael Jordan (23), Scottie Pippen (33), Jerry Sloan (4) and Bob Love (10) as the only players whose numbers have been retired by the team.
He had already gotten a glimpse at the banner. On Friday, the Bulls posted video on social media of him seeing it for the first time.
Rose said seeing the banner was “unreal.” But it hadn’t really sunk in.
“All this, the moment, I’m still trying to take in, I’m still trying to process in real time,” he said. “And yeah, and just feeling grateful, you know what I mean? Like knowing the weather conditions out there, knowing that it’s a Chicago thing to even show up here, to fight through that and still go to an event. It’s huge, so it’s something that I’m grateful for.”
The video the Bulls posted shows a wide-eyed Rose walking out to centre court. He lets out a “wow, are you serious?” as he gazes at the unfurled banner in front of the scorer’s table. He squats, walks over and touches it, rubbing his hand over the No. 1.
He’s then joined by his family as well as former teammates Joakim Noah, Taj Gibson and Kirk Hinrich.
“This ain’t only for me, man,” Rose tells them. “All the moments that we had fighting and all that. It’s for everybody. I wouldn’t have gotten this far if I wouldn’t have gotten the knowledge in the times that we had.”
Noah says in the video seeing Rose’s number raised to the rafters “is our championship moment.”
On Saturday, there were black Rose jerseys at each seat. The Bulls posted video from Jordan and Pippen congratulating him. Rose left roses from his flower shop — Rose’s Flower Shop — in both teams’ locker rooms before the game.
This isn’t the first time the team honored Rose. The Bulls did it when they played New York on Jan. 4, 2025, symbolizing the date as well as the numbers he wore with the Bulls as well as the Knicks and Chicago’s Simeon Career Academy. That same day, the Bulls announced they would retire Rose’s jersey.
Rose, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2008 NBA draft, went from being Rookie of the Year to an All-Star to NBA MVP in his first three seasons. He remains the league’s youngest MVP, winning it when he was 22.
A major knee injury during the 2012 playoffs forced him to miss almost two full seasons and he contemplated stepping away from the game several times following other injury issues.
Rose averaged 17.4 points and 5.2 assists in 723 regular-season games. He averaged 21 points per game before the ACL tear 12 years ago and 15.1 per game in the seasons that followed. But he doesn’t dwell on what might have been.
At 37, Rose is more focused on his family and business interests, like an online flower shop and employing people from the city. Or his work promoting participation in chess, particularly among at-rise youngsters. He’s not all that interested in working in basketball.
“Everybody thinks the the path or the motif was, ‘All right, after you get done, you gotta go back and be around basketball,’” he said. “I didn’t want that. I wanted to curate things or be in lanes that nobody was in. Coming from Chicago, when you tend to enter lanes that people are in, you step on toes and certain things can happen.
“So with me having that in mind, I wanted curate things so that I don’t have to worry about any competition.”
