Emotional Rose sees Bulls’ No. 1 jersey retired

CHICAGO — The Bulls retired Derrick Rose’s No. 1 jersey Saturday night after their 106-103 victory against the Boston Celtics.

Rose grew emotional throughout the ceremony, wiping tears from his eyes as his former teammates, Taj Gibson and Luol Deng, provided the opening remarks. Rose then delivered a tearful speech, honoring his mother, Brenda, his brothers, some ex-teammates in attendance and a sold-out crowd in his hometown of Chicago, as nearly all of the fans remained in their seats for more than an hour after the game.

Rose became the fifth Bulls player in history to have his number retired, joining Jerry Sloan (No. 4), Bob Love (No. 10), Michael Jordan (No. 23) and Scottie Pippen (No. 33). The Bulls also have banners that honor former coach Phil Jackson and former general manager Jerry Krause.

“This journey was never about me,” Rose said before the win. “It was about creating the synergy that somehow people from the city can pull from. And somehow, I was that beacon or that vessel for that — from hooping.”

Despite temperatures dropping to single digits in Chicago on Saturday, fans lined up outside the United Center hours before tipoff, waiting for an early glimpse of the star of the night. A black T-shirt with Rose’s name and number on the back was draped on every seat in the arena, and Bulls players wore the same shirt for their pregame warmups.

Rose stepped onto the court about an hour before the game as fans frantically lined up to take pictures and video. Rose shot around with his son while his family members and former teammates gathered along the baseline and at center court.

“All this, the moment, I’m still trying to take it in,” Rose said. “Just feeling grateful. Knowing the weather conditions out there, knowing that it is a Chicago thing, to even show up here, to fight through that and still go to an event, is huge.”

A Chicago orchestra played the team’s intro song, “SIRIUS” by the Alan Parsons Project, to begin the postgame festivities as fans chanted “M-V-P, M-V-P” throughout the night. Several current Bulls players, such as Coby White, Josh Giddey, Zach Collins and rookie Noa Essengue returned to the bench to watch the ceremony.

After hitting the tiebreaking 3-pointer with one second left, Bulls guard Kevin Huerter said after the game that he considered jumping into his teammates’ arms, a nod to Rose’s celebration after his game-winning shot in the 2015 playoffs against the Cavaliers.

Rose, a Chicago native, played eight seasons with the Bulls after being selected No. 1 in 2008. He was named the 2008-09 Rookie of the Year and made three All-Star teams. In 2011, he became the youngest MVP in NBA history.

A year ago, Rose said he wanted his jersey retirement to be a celebration of everyone. On Saturday, he reiterated that point, giving credit to the fans for the connection they fostered in the city.

“It was about everybody that found ways to come to my games,” Rose said. “That somehow, we had some type of vibration that connected … it is no coincidence that all this is going on, and the people that watched me play showed up today.”

The Bulls honored Rose last January after his retirement at the start of the 2024-25 season, but the organization waited until this year to retire his jersey.

“We wanted to honor him, but we wanted to take the time to actually really plan something really, really special,” Bulls president Michael Reinsdorf told ESPN last week. “I guess we could have done it last year, but I feel like this is the right way to do it. Give him time to prepare and give us time to ramp up to the big day.”

The Bulls played a video on the scoreboard after the game that featured some of Rose’s former teammates, NBA superstars such as LeBron James, Stephen Curry and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Rose’s family and friends, and Chicagoans talking about Rose’s impact on their lives and the city.

About 20 of his ex-teammates were in attendance for Saturday’s festivities. Rose sat in a suite during the game along with former teammates such as Joakim Noah, Gibson, Deng, Ben Gordon, Kirk Hinrich and coach Tom Thibodeau. Noah said the group gathered the night before the ceremony, and the gathering lasted until the early hours of Saturday morning.

“Many, many nights, many, many foxholes, many, many scraps, he was right there with me,” Gibson said to fans Saturday night. “And he was that one comforting teammate that you always looked to the corner or you looked to the side, and he always say, ‘I got you.'”

Rose got a glimpse of the ceremonial banner earlier this week, when he viewed the finished product at the United Center before it was raised to the rafters. He said seeing the banner was “unreal,” but he was still trying to process his emotions.

However, those around the Bulls’ organization made it clear what Rose’s banner signified to them.

“Even though we didn’t win a championship, our fans did truly love that era of Chicago Bulls basketball,” Reinsdorf said. “Derrick, he’s Chicago-born. He’s one of us. He was playing for the city, the city that he grew up in and that he loved and he cared so much about.

“This thing is forever, man,” Deng told fans after the game. “When people talk about all the minutes, all the injuries, everything that we went through — that’s our trophy. That’s our trophy, man.”

Originally published at ESPN