The Memphis Grizzlies are waiving Derrick Rose, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic, and we will all now await word on whether this is it for Rose as an NBA Player.
In light of the news, Stefan Bondy of the New York Post noted that Rose pondered retirement last summer after the Knicks opted not to bring him back for what would’ve been the fourth season in his second stint with the team.
Instead, Rose went back to where he played his college ball in Memphis and has spoken about how much that full-circle opportunity meant to him. Knicks insider Ian Begley reports that the Grizzlies let Rose out of his contract and that an “update on what’s next” for Rose can be expected in the next week, but if he were to officially hang it up after 18 seasons (one fully lost to injury), Memphis being his last stop would make for a poetic bookend to a storied career.
Injuries, as we all know, robbed Rose of what could’ve, and almost certainly would’ve, been a Hall of Fame career. We’re talking about a guy who was capable of and on track to becoming one of the greatest point guard to ever play. He’s still the youngest MVP in league history at 22 years old.
No guard, not even prime Russell Westbrook, has ever matched the sheer athletic force that pre-injury Rose brought to the court. Ja Morant, Rose’s teammate for his year in Memphis, probably conjures the closest aerial athletic comp, but Rose was even a different beast than Morant. He was an exploding acrobat at a generous 6-foot-3.
Rose remained a valuable player even after his athleticism was almost literally cut off at the knees, and he has talked openly about the doors that opened to him in terms of finding his identity outside of basketball once he could no longer do the things on the court that had once defined him.
Still, whether he retires now or catches on somewhere else for a final chapter, he will go down as one of the signature “what could’ve been” cases not just in NBA history, but in all of sports.
