It has been over a month since Derrick Rose closed the curtains on his prolonged career in the NBA. Many Chicago Bulls fans lamented the decision as the end of a painful memory of lost potential. But BJ Armstrong’s story on Derrick Rose’s playoff debut gives us hope that the Chicago native’s legacy will not be about what he could have achieved, but what he did achieve.
Rose hit the ground running after he was drafted #1 overall by the Bulls. After a ‘Rookie of the Year’ season in 2008-09, the 6-foot-3 guard braced for the first real challenge of his NBA career when his team faced the mighty Boston Celtics in the first round of the 2009 playoffs. But Rose was not scared at all about facing the defending Champions.
On the contrary, he was excited. And if you take BJ Armstrong’s word, a little too excited for a rookie guard, especially at the prospect of guarding the legendary Rajon Rondo. Armstrong, who was Rose’s agent at the time, recalled how the then 20-year-old couldn’t stop obsessing over Rando’s game.
“The only person he [Rose] wanted to talk about was Rondo and how he was able to get everyone involved,” the 57-year-old revealed. Rose picked Armstrong’s brain in an attempt to understand how the veteran Celtics guard operated so smoothly with his teammates, how he controlled the tempo of the game so seamlessly.
“I thought this is a very sophisticated conversation for a rookie guard,” Armstrong added. However, D-Rose wasn’t done. Over an hour into the conversation, the Bulls guard started to ask the three-time NBA Champion for a winning strategy against the elite tandem of the Celtics. That’s when BJ realized that Rose means business.
Armstrong looked into his wealth of experience playing for the Michael Jordan-led Bulls and advised the young guard to win the first quarter to set the tone of the game early. Rose took the advice to work and set the tone in historic fashion in the first-game of the series, putting up 36-points and 11 assists on 12-of-19 shooting.
Rose’s effort not only gave Chicago a 1-0 lead in the series, but also helped him tie Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s record for most points scored in a playoff debut by a rookie guard. Such a statement against the reigning Champions put the league on notice about the rise of a new superstar and set the stage for his 2011 MVP.
Rose set the tone of a memorable series
Rose’s 36-point banger was the perfect start to a thriller of a series. Even though Chicago entered the postseason as the seventh seed, they had enough firepower to give the Celtics a run for their money. They had the likes of Ben Gordon, John Salmons, and Kirk Hinrich to help Rose hold the fort for seven games.
Rose averaged 19.7 points, 6.3 assists and 4.9 rebounds per game, shooting 47.5% from the floor. But the Celtics had too much Championship experience to lose a seven-game series against a rookie guard.
Regardless, Rose’s heroics made Chicago fans excited in the Bulls once again. His performance against the Celtics reminded fans of the Jordan era and they once again started flocking the stands to see their newest star.
Chicago fans still reminisce about D-Rose from that lens. Despite injuries derailing his career, Bulls fans are grateful to Rose for instilling that hope in them in the 2010s after a long time.