20 NBA Hall-of-Fame careers that were cut short by injury
NBA Hall-of-Fame career cut short: Derrick Rose
There are only two players on this list who won the NBA Most Valuable Player award. The first was Bill Walton, who made the Hall of Fame on the back of multiple championships and an elite college career. Derrick Rose might be in line to be the first MVP winner not to make the Hall of Fame.
Things certainly went great to start his career. Rose attended Memphis University for just one season but led the team to the NCAA Championship Game, where the Tigers lost in overtime to the Kansas Jayhawks. He was drafted first overall in 2008 by his hometown Chicago Bulls and was the Rookie of the Year.
His career only accelerated from there, with Rose and the Bulls improving each season. He made his first All-Star team in 2010 and was the league MVP in 2010-11, with the Bulls winning 62 games to lead the Eastern Conference and Rose averaging 25 points and 7.7 assists per game. With LeBron James and Dwight Howard putting up monster numbers on good teams, it’s one of the more questionable MVP awards in league history.
It only began to stand out even more after the following season, when Rose tore his ACL in Game 1 of the 2012 NBA Playoffs, and Rose would miss all of the following season. He returned to start the following year, only to tear his meniscus in his other knee and miss the rest of the season. Knee injuries limited him to 51 games the next year, and would continue to plague him as he kept his career alive for the next decade. Knee, ankle and groin issues cost him hundreds of games during his career.
No MVP-winner has ever missed the NBA Hall of Fame, but it’s hard to make a case for Rose to make it in. He had minimal impact outside of the NBA, winning two gold medals at the World Cup as a role player but never at the Olympics, and while he has stuck around the league he hasn’t sniffed another All-Star team or made a difference on a Finals team. Rose is going to miss the Hall of Fame, something that seemed unthinkable in 2011.
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