A History of the TNT Bulls

Game 13: Can Rose be Rose again?

Basketball-Reference box score.

How many times since April 2012 have Bulls fans asked this question? How many hours have we as a community spent toiling and stewing over the answer to something so unknowable? All throughout Rose’s multiple post-injury seasons with Chicago, this question followed him wherever he went, hiding behind different wording or attempted subtlety. After this game, it wasn’t hiding.

Rose gave spectators MVP flashbacks as he helped the Bulls hold onto a 104-98 victory over Kevin Durant and the Oklahoma City Thunder, who were playing their fourth game in five nights. With only a few minutes left to play, the Thunder had tied the game, overcoming a 10-point deficit. Then, Rose went into superhero mode (he was wearing a mask, after all).

Rose scored 10 points in the last four minutes, including a pair of jump shots that put the Bulls up by six with less than two minutes to go. His late-game heroics would go along with 26 points from Butler and a double-double from Gasol.

The optimism that Rose generated after this win hovered around the Bulls for a bit, but it wouldn’t last, as we’ll soon see. Our story is moving toward darker times, and Rose isn’t safe from them. People aren’t asking that question about Rose anymore, but they’ve found a replacement: “Will Derrick Rose be the first MVP to not make the Hall of Fame?”