20 Things You Didn’t Know about Derrick Rose
Derrick Rose is the emerging basketball prodigy that took the world by storm when he managed to tuck a few prestigious awards and records under his belt before he turned 23 years old. All the way from high school, Derrick Rose never failed to impress greatly with his outstanding skills and his equally outstanding heart that the world basically had no choice but to love him. Derrick Rose is the kind of person to never accept praise no matter how well he does. He is known to either direct them at his mother, his brothers or at God.
Below are 20 other facts about the wildly talented basketball star Derrick Rose that you probably didn’t know:
Derrick Martell Rose is the youngest MVP of all time
Derrick Rose, born on October 4, 1988, was only 22 years old when he was officially announced the MVP after leading the Bulls to a 62-20 record and No. 1 seed in the playoffs. Rose got 1,182 points and 113 first-place votes from a panel of media voters, immediately removing Wes Unseld who previously had the title as the youngest to win the award with a runaway win. Orlando’s Dwight Howard (643 points) finished second, Miami’s LeBron James was third, the Lakers’ Kobe Bryant was fourth and Oklahoma City star Kevin Durant finished fifth.
He had a high school nickname
In 2007, because he was the best high school basketball player in the state of Illinois, Derrick Rose was called ‘Mr. Basketball’ by all his friends and teachers. It was a very well deserved title too. As he was the nation’s number one high school point guard, Derrick Rose played for the University of Memphis before declaring for the 2008 NBA Draft after his freshman year. And when he was selected as number one overall by the Chicago Bulls, Rose was named MVP of the NBA following the 2011 season.
Derrick has three brothers
Raised by a single mother in a tough section of Chicago, Illinois, Derrick did not grow up with a silver spoon in his mouth. Rose developed the interest of playing basketball from his three elder brothers Dwayne, Reggie, and Allan. They taught him how to play basketball and also made him proficient in the game. And even though they are not world renown athletes like Rose himself, he still gives all the credit to them whenever he is asked how he got involved in basketball in the first place. There’s nothing like sibling love to teach you all the skills you need for life.
Derrick has other achievements
Derrick Rose is the only Chicago Bull player apart from Michael Jordan to finish in the Top 10 in both points and assists and in the same season. That surely must not have been easy to achieve but you will quickly come to find out that Derrick Rose is the definition of success and goes hard till he gets what he wants.
He comes from Illinois
Derrick Rose was born and bred in the Englewood area which is one of the most dangerous neighborhoods on Chicago’s South Side. As the youngest son of his mother, Brenda Rose, Derrick had to learn from a very young age how to defend and fight for himself and his family. It is reported by ESPN that it was the drive that he had to leave the dangerous neighborhood and to create a better life for himself and his family for generations to come that made him successful at basketball.
He has always had a sweet tooth
The famous basketball player reportedly has a very sweet tooth. He says that although he is trying to cut back on the candy eating, his favorites ones are Twizzlers and gummy bears. This sweet tooth is what led him to be likened to Disney’s very own super sweet-toothed bear, Winnie the Pooh.
His favorite actor is Will Smith
Yes, Derrick Rose is just like the millions of us who love the actor Will Smith. He even claims that if someone were to play him in a movie, the comedian Will Smith is exactly who he would want it to be. Derrick Rose’s favorite Will Smith movie till date is ‘Seven Pounds’. Though it would be hard to picture Smith playing Rose unless he somehow gets his entire game back with the Knicks.
His agent is former Bulls’ guard, B.J. Armstrong
When B.J. Armstrong was asked why he thought Derrick Rose picked him out of the three top rated companies that wanted to represent him, his response was that “I think that Derrick chose me largely because I played in Chicago and he grew up in Chicago watching me play. There was a time in Chicago where I played on some pretty good teams. The things that happened in that city as he was growing up probably left a mark on him. Again, I believe that I was the beneficiary of good timing. Derrick and I even played the same position. Sometimes things just line up…you can’t plan it. I think we just had a few similarities in our background that made it all work out for a lot of different reasons”.
He has a fear of spiders
The famous, talented NBA player who the whole world sees as fierce, brave, cool and collected cannot have a spider in his way without feeling a rush of panic. Who would have thought? Derrick Rose is famous for his fear of spiders and also for his fear of needles. He missed out about 5 minutes of a game in his freshman year because he was avoiding having to get stitches for an injury he sustained during the game.
He loves ping-pong
Outside of basketball, Rose is known to be an avid ping-pong player. He is also known to love baseball and once said that it was the sport he would choose if he couldn’t play basketball. It is reported that Derrick Rose also recently started to enjoy reading novels and playing Rummikub. Something tells us that Rose would have been a major league baseball player if he wanted to be.
He had a hard time choosing a college to attend
Because of his outstanding performance in basketball when he was in high school, Derrick Rose was a very sought after student by most college basketball team recruiters. He says that it was one of the hardest decisions he has ever had to make. He considered college offers from Indiana and Illinois before settling on Memphis. He played high school ball in Illinois so it is no surprise that he wanted to stay. In the end, it doesn’t matter which college he went to.
He has a nickname
Derrick Rose was nicknamed ‘Winnie the Pooh’ by his grandmother because of his love for all things sweet as well as his yellowish skin tone. This nickname was, over the years, shortened to just ‘Pooh’, so when his son, Derrick Jr., was born, his name became P.J. (Pooh Junior). October 9, 2012 was the day that Derrick Rose’s girlfriend, Mieka Reese, gave birth to their son, Derrick Jr (P.J.). Derrick has taken his nickname to the next level. He has a tattoo of a wizard in a cloak that reads “The Great Poohdini.”
He traveled through Europe and Asia in 2013
Derrick Rose spent a week traveling through 7 European countries as a part of Adidas’ D Rose tour in an attempt to connect Derrick Rose with all his fans in Europe, to grow basketball internationally, and to showcase the latest from his Adidas Basketball collection. The D Rose tour continued in September for a week in Asia where Derrick visited Tokyo, Japan, Manila, Philippines, Beijing, Wuhan, Shenzhen and Hangzhou, China. The tour ended with a late September event in Rose’s hometown of Chicago, where he connected with all his locally based fans before beginning the NBA season.
He is an U.S. Team Player
Rose was a member of the United States of America men’s national basketball teams that won gold medals at the 2014 and 2010 International Basketball Federation (FIBA) World Cup respectively. While Rose’s game isn’t quite what it once was, he’s still had a profound impact on the National Team.
He is a quiet person
Derrick Rose reports he is quite by nature and doesn’t particularly enjoy interacting with strangers. He told GQ magazine in 2012 that when he is being quiet and observing he calls it going into ‘stealth mode.’ He is very aware of his surroundings and gets a good read on people just by observing them. He also tells ESPN that he gets quiet and shy when he is intently focused on something. You know the old saying that quiet people need to be the most feared? It holds true for Derrick Rose, because even though he might be tight-lipped and emotionally disconnected from people he doesn’t know, his wild success on the court is a large booming voice of its own.
He mostly plays point guard
But I bet you already knew that. With a height of 6 feet 3 inches (1.91 m) and a weight of 190 pounds (86 kg), Rose is mostly known to play point guard. The skill he is most known for is his ability to convert difficult layups and drive right through defenses. He can also run the pick and roll extremely well. The biggest weakness that Rose faces is his three-point shooting, although he greatly improved on that in his third season which also happened to be his MVP season.
His favorite food is grilled cheese
Yes, that’s right. Even the rich and the famous love this classic sandwich as much as we do. A profile of Derrick Rose on ESPN entitled ‘The Third Coming of Derrick Rose’ included an excerpt that says ‘in expensive restaurants, with foie gras and lobster on the menu, Derrick will order a grilled cheese, ignoring the raised eyebrows and laughs of his brothers and friends, because there was a time when the comfort of a grilled cheese was the finest thing he could imagine.’
He is compassionate
Derrick wore Number 25 jersey in high school to honor the memory of Ben Wilson who was a star at Simeon Academy who was murdered the night before graduation.When he heard about the cold murder of a 14-year-old that was killed by her classmate because of a Facebook spat about a boy, he snuck into the little chapel for her memorial, paid his respects, offered condolences to the girl’s parents, and snuck out quickly to avoid making a scene and distracting the crowd from the main reason why they were gathered.
He has been hurt…a lot
Derrick Rose, like a lot of world class athletes, has sustained one too many injuries one too many times. Prominent among these is the right knee injury he sustained in 2013 that caused him to have surgery. He was out for a season because of this. In 2015 alone, he was reported to have a sprained knee in January, a sore leg in February, right hamstring tendinitis also in February, a left abductor strain in March, and a sore elbow in April. In addition to the five times he got hurt in 2015 and the five times in the year before that, Derrick Rose is a real fighter for still being able to play and also be on top of his game.
He is Christian
A lot of celebrities and top athletes like to keep their religious views private in order to gain a very diverse following. But recently, a lot of people have come out to express what religion it is that they are involved with. Derrick Rose is a perfect example. Rose has spoken about his faith saying, “… God does everything for a reason” and he wears a wristband that says “In Jesus Name I Play”. In addition to this, he has several tattoos about his faith; an angel tattoo on his neck, a cross on his arm, one across his back that says “God’s Child,” and another one on his arm saying “Only God Can Judge Me”.