Long before Derrick Rose became an NBA MVP, he was already talented enough to believe he could help a varsity basketball team. His high school coach made sure talent alone would not determine his path.
Rose recently reflected on his freshman season at Chicago’s Simeon Career Academy, when longtime coach Bob Hambric kept him off the varsity roster despite Rose’s obvious ability. Hambric had a long-standing policy against putting freshmen on varsity, and Rose now views that decision as an important part of his development.
“They already had a decent team. They were missing a point guard. They probably could have used me,” Rose said. “But he stood on me. He was like, ‘Nah, you ain’t bigger than the program.’”
At the time, Rose was one of the most gifted young players in Chicago. Instead of immediately being elevated because of his reputation, he spent his freshman year playing below the varsity level. Rose later averaged 18.5 points per game during that first high school season and helped his younger teams enjoy enormous success.
Rose said he eventually came to understand Hambric’s reasoning by learning more about the coach’s history and principles, including his connection to Simeon legend Ben “Benji” Wilson. Wilson, one of the most celebrated high school players in Chicago history, was fatally shot in 1984 during his senior year. Rose later wore No. 25 at Simeon in Wilson’s honor.
“Then when you start to learn who Hambric was, how he coached Benji and the principles that he stood on, I totally understood it,” Rose said.
Derrick Rose says his high school coach refused to let him play varsity as a freshman so he could learn discipline
“They already had a decent team. They were missing a point guard. They probably could have used me.”
“But he stood on me. He was like, ‘Nah, you ain’t bigger than… pic.twitter.com/q2X3hiXOIF
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The decision hardly stopped Rose from dominating. He remembers his junior varsity group being good enough to seriously challenge the varsity team in practice.
“Our JV team was thrashing people. But we were cool with each other. We made the varsity team good. We were that good,” Rose said. “In practice, we were damn near fighting them because we were pushing them too hard. But Coach Hambrick did exactly what he was supposed to do.”
What Rose appreciates most now is that Hambric refused to treat him differently simply because everyone could already see his potential. Rose believes another program might have immediately handed him the ball, given him varsity status and allowed his talent to override accountability.
“Because if I did go somewhere and play varsity, somebody else was just going to let me run wild and not get any discipline,” Rose said.
Rose eventually became a varsity star at Simeon, leading the program to consecutive Illinois state championships before playing at Memphis and becoming the No. 1 overall pick in the 2008 NBA Draft.
