LINCOLNSHIRE, Ill. (AP) — Right from the start, Derrick Rose wondered why he couldn't be the MVP. It turns out, nothing could stop him.
Rose officially became the NBA's youngest MVP on
Tuesday and joined Michael Jordan as the only Bulls player to win the award,
which was no surprise given his spectacular season and Chicago's leap to a
league-leading 62 wins.
He has a ways to go before he catches Jordan, who
won five MVPs and led the way to two championship three-peats, but he sure is
off to a good start.
"I'm not even touching that man right
there," Rose said. "I'm far away from him. If anything, it would be
great to be close to him. This is a different team, a different era."
In his third year, the dynamic point guard led the
Bulls to their best season since the championship era.
The 22-year-old Rose got 1,182 points and 113
first-place votes from a panel of media voters, supplanting Wes Unseld 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.
A product of Chicago's South Side, Rose established
himself as one of the top players in the league after going from Rookie of the
Year to All-Star in his first two seasons. He took another step this year with
one of the best all-around performances by a point guard.
He averaged 25 points and 7.7 assists while leading
Chicago into contention for its first championship since the Jordan-Scottie
Pippen era. For all the groaning over the Bulls missing out on James, Dwyane
Wade and Chris Bosh in free agency, they did quite well for themselves anyway.
Rose showed up to training camp openly wondering
why he couldn't be MVP. Then, he backed it up.
"It really just came out," Rose said.
"That's the way I thought at the time. I put a lot of hard work into my
game, especially during the summer. ... I dedicated my whole summer to
basketball. Even though it was tough, I did it."
Rose was a picture of humility during the news
conference. He thanked everyone from the fans to his teammates, coaches and
management, and he choked up when he mentioned his mom, Brenda Rose, and older
brothers seated in the front row.
At one point, he looked at her and paused.
"Just thinking how hard she works," he
said. "Those are hard days. My days shouldn't be hard because I love what
I'm doing. That's playing basketball. You keep me going every day and I love
you."
Rose ranked seventh in scoring and 10th in assists,
making him the only player this season in the top 10 in both categories. The
only other Bull to do so was Jordan in 1988-89, when he led the league in
scoring (32.5 points) and finished 10th in assists, according to information
provided to the team by the Elias Sports Bureau.
Throw in a 4.1 rebounding average, and Rose joins
another elite group. He's the seventh player in league history to average at
least 25 points, 7.5 assists and 4.0 rebounds, along with Jordan, Oscar
Robertson, Jerry West, Larry Bird, Wade and James, according to Elias.
"We all knew how good he could be,"
veteran forward Luol Deng said. "It's a big surprise for all of us how
quick he got there. We knew he was going to get there; we said that from the
start. He's just a hard worker, a humble kid. He's really out there just to win
games."
In the postseason, he's been just as impressive.
He scored 39 and 36 points in the first two playoff
games against Indiana. Then he shook off two sub-par performances and a
sprained left ankle to score 25 points in Game 5 as the top-seeded Bulls closed
out what had been a tight first-round series with a 116-89 victory.
They stumbled in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference
semifinals against Atlanta, losing 103-95. Rose scored 24 points, but he hit
just 11 of 27 shots and did not attempt a free throw. He also limped off the
court after twisting his left ankle, but expects to be ready for Game 2 on
Wednesday.
It's been a rapid, steady climb for a player who
came into the league with soaring expectations. He helped Simeon Career Academy
become the first Chicago Public League team to win back-to-back state
championships, then led Memphis to the NCAA championship game before the Bulls
drafted him with the No. 1 pick in 2008 after defying 1.7-percent odds to win
the lottery.
"I'll never forget the morning after we got
that pick where we got the entire management staff together to meet,"
general manager Gar Forman said.
They knew then who they were picking.
And when they started talking to him, Forman said,
"It was obvious to us that not only was Derrick a very special talent, but
he possessed the intangibles that you need to become a very special player in
this league. Going into that draft, I remember our feeling was this is too good
to be true."
Now?
"Our feeling is still this is really too good
to be true," Forman said.
Rose has added new touches to his game every
season, expanding the range on his jumper to go with those explosive drives to
the basket.
"He's been everything you could ask for,"
coach Tom Thibodeau said. "He's been a leader, a player. He's only going
to get better."
Copyright
2011 The Associated Press.
