Former Kia NBA MVP Derrick Rose announces retirement after 16 years

Derrick Rose poses with the Kia NBA MVP trophy in 2011.

Derrick Rose considered retiring several times over the years as he was often frustrated by injuries and was unable to consistently play at the level he desired.

The game always lured him back. Until now.

Rose, who was selected No. 1 overall in the 2008 NBA Draft by the Chicago Bulls and was named league MVP in 2011, announced his retirement on Thursday. He was and remains the youngest MVP in NBA history, winning the award at just 22 years old as the pinnacle of his later 16-year career.

“You believed in me through good times and bad, you were my constant when everything else seemed uncertain,” Rose posted a letter to the players on Instagram on Thursday, which was also his announcement of his retirement.

Rose was the Bulls' Rookie of the Year in 2008-09, was named league MVP two seasons later, and was an All-Star in three of his first four seasons. A serious knee injury during the 2012 playoffs forced him to miss nearly two full seasons, and he considered quitting the game several times, but always found ways to get back on the field.

In addition to the Bulls, he also played for New York, Detroit, Minnesota, Cleveland and Memphis. He spent last season with the Grizzlies, returning to the city he called home during his only season of college basketball.

He played 24 games for the Grizzlies last season, and when the season ended, Rose spoke at length about what returning to Memphis meant to him.

“It's come full circle,” Rose said in April. “To come back here, to have my family here, my wife's family is from here, to be back in this arena, some of the people that came to my college games are now coming here for my professional games, it's all love.”

The Grizzlies added in a statement Thursday congratulating Rose on his career: “We are grateful for your significant contributions to this team and this city and wish you all the best in the next chapter of your life.”

Rose has undergone multiple knee surgeries over the years, took time off during the 2017-18 season to consider his future while battling ankle problems, and sat out nearly two full seasons after the knee injury in 2012 when he should have been at his best.

Rose averaged 17.4 points and 5.2 assists in 723 regular season games. He averaged 21 points per game before his ACL tear 12 years ago and 15.1 points per game in subsequent seasons.

“With D-Rose, it was never about his talent,” Dwyane Wade, a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame and former teammate of Rose, said in 2018. “It was always about his health. And when he was healthy, everyone saw all of his talent.”

Rose continued to show flashes of his MVP-level talent in the years following his knee problems. He scored 50 points for Minnesota in a 128-125 win over Utah on October 31, 2018, a game that brought him to tears. For Detroit, he had 12 assists in a 115-107 win over Houston on December 14, 2019, his first such game in nearly eight years.

“I know him as a person and his character,” said Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau, who coached Rose in Chicago, Minnesota and New York in 2018 when he led the Timberwolves. “And that comes through.”

Rose was a serious candidate for the league's sixth Man of the Year award in three consecutive seasons – 2018-19, 2019-20 and 2020-21 – and even received a first-place vote for MVP again in the 2020-21 season, a decade after winning that award.

He quickly made a name for himself as a star, winning the league's Skills Challenge as a rookie during All-Star weekend in 2009, then being named Rookie of the Year and scoring 36 points in his playoff debut. It was a meteoric rise for someone who grew up in poverty in the Chicago suburbs and then saw basketball as an escape and a way to provide for his mother and family. In 2006, he scored a basket to win the Illinois state high school championship. Just five years later, he was NBA MVP.

“The boy from Englewood became a Chicago legend,” the Bulls posted on social media Thursday, along with a video of Rose’s highlights with the team.

We are grateful for your significant contributions to this team and this city and wish you all the best in the next chapter of your life. pic.twitter.com/Vc8QLv0c2I

— Memphis Grizzlies (@memgrizz) 26 September 2024

Just a kid from Chicago.

Thank you for everything, @drose 🌹 pic.twitter.com/u3CCwhlfRe

— Chicago Bulls (@chicagobulls) 26 September 2024