NBA Hall of Famer Tim Hardaway named his top five Chicago players of all time, and his list didn’t include former NBA MVP Derrick Rose.
“That’s easy. Isaiah Thomas, Mark Aguirre, Terry Cummings, myself, and Dwyane Wade,” Hardaway told Sports Lens.
Growing up in Chicago
A five-time NBA All-Star and All-NBA, Hardaway averaged 17.7 points, 8.2 assists, 3.3 rebounds and 1.6 steals in 35.3 minutes over 867 career games in 14 years with the Warriors, Heat, Mavericks, Nuggets and Pacers.
During his interview with Sports Lens, he also took time to reflect upon his memories of growing up in Chicago
“I grew up in gang-infested, drug-infested Chicago. It was tough... And the basketball was totally different. It was push, shove, beat you up, bang you, knock you down, slap you around, you better not cry, you know, you had to fight sometimes,” he said.
Rose is one of the biggest what-ifs in NBA history
Rose became the youngest player to earn the NBA MVP award (22 years, 191 days old) after averaging 25 points, 7.7 assists, and 4.1 rebounds in 37.4 minutes over 81 games during the 2010-11 season. In the following years, serious injuries almost ended Rose’s career as he couldn’t lead the Bulls to their first NBA championship since the Michael Jordan era.
Still, D-Rose became a fan favourite in Chicago. And he still is, according to his former Bulls teammate Joakim Noah.
“First of all, he was a hometown kid, so he was from the hood, from the South Side. And he’s from Chicago. Some people say they’re from Chicago, they’re not really from Chicago, they’re from the outskirts. There’s a lot of those... that doesn’t count. He was Chicago. And, I don’t care, his run at his peak, if you’re from Chicago, you wanted it to be that. You wanted to be the number one pick from the Bulls, having that building rocking the way that he did. And the hope was real, the hope all around the city,” Noah said.
Rose averaged 19.7 points, 6.2 assists and 3.7 rebounds in 35 minutes over 406 games in seven years with the Bulls.
An injury-free career would have made him one of the best point guards of all time and possibly an NBA champion. Still, his story will keep inspiring fans in Chicago and all over the world for years to come, as he continues to leave his basketball mark with the New York Knicks.
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