Birth date 4 Oct 1988 (31 years)
Nationality United States United States
Position Point Guard
Nickname Pooh, Poohdini
Team history
Chicago Bulls 2008 - present

Derrick Martell Rose is a professional basketball player from the United States of America who plays as a point guard. Born in Chicago, Rose went to the Simeon Career Academy in 2003 where he, in his freshman year, failed to make the team due to a long standing tradition by coach Bob Hambric to not place any freshman on the squad.

He led the freshman team to the city championships while repeating the performance with the sophomore team as well, leading the way to a 24-1 record. Hambric decided to make an exception and brought him into the team. Rose was named to the Parade Magazine All-American Third Team in honour of his efforts in taking his team to the State Championship finals.

In 2006, Rose’s junior year, Rose helped the Simeon Wolverines win the Chicago Public League and himself earned some major accolades for his high flying dunks and championship winning performance. Rose then played an instrumental role in bring the Simeon Career Academy their first title since 1984. He was mentioned in the All-State team for Illinois while EA Sports picked him for their All-American Second Team and Parade Magazine gave him another All-American selection.

In his senior year, Rose was ranked at number 5, amongst the top-most prospects in the country, by Sports Illustrated magazine. A fascinating performance against highly rated Oak Hill Academy guard, Brandon Jennings, saw Rose get the USA Today High School Player of the Week award. He would, later in the season, take the Wolverines back to the Public League Championship title to make it the first school from Chicago to win consecutive State Championships.

Rose was named as Illinois Mr. Basketball while also being named to the All-State First Team. He was also named to the McDonald’s All-American First Team along with the Parade Magazine and USA Today All-American First Teams. He was also picked for the Jordan Brand All-Star Game as well as the Nike Hoop Summit.

In 2009, Rose got the incredible award of being named the third greatest high-school point guard for the decade, behind Chris Paul and T.J. Ford.

Rose, controversially, got into University of Memphis after coach John Calipari looked at him through his high school days. The Tigers got off to a roaring start with a 26-0 run to become the top ranked team in the country. With 14.9 points per game, Rose set the courts ablaze, making 4.7 assists and grabbing 4.5 rebounds along the way. Rose saw Memphis through to the Final Four stage of the NCAA tournament and with a win at this stage of the tournament, helped the Tigers notch up 38 wins to record the most number of wins in a season in the NCAA. Although the Tigers lost in the finals, Rose was named to the All-Final Four team after a 20.8 point per game average in the tournament.

However, all of Rose’s statistics and achievements counted for nothing because it turned out that Rose had cheated during the SAT test by having someone else take the test in his place in order to gain an acceptance to the University of Memphis. There were also accusations that the grades of four members of the back-to-back championship winning teams at Simeon Career Academy were changed to passable grades in order to allow them to pursue basketball through high-rated colleges.

Despite the controversy, Rose was on the NBA map and was heading to the 2008 NBA Draft. At the Draft, Rose was the overall number one pick for the Chicago Bulls despite having just a 1.7% chance of being the top pick. Picked for the U.S. Select Team, which helps the national team prepare, Rose attracted a lot of attention and praise before making his debut for the Bulls.

Starting strongly, Rose became the first rookie ever to score 1- or more points in his first ten games since Michael Jordan and was eventually named as the November Rookie of the Month as well as for December. Rose was also named for the All-Star Weekend where he played in the Rookie Challenge and the Skills Challenge. Rose won the latter to become the only rookie to ever do so.

After a few poor months, Rose came back into the reckoning with another Rookie of the Month award in March. He would go on to win the Rookie of the Year title to become the third Bulls’ player to do so since Michael Jordan and Elton Brand.

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