Exclusive: Scoop Jackson’s Derrick Rose revelations that says everything about him

Undoubtedly, Derrick Rose became the literal hometown hero during his NBA career. He grew up in the Englewood neighborhood of Chicago, attended Simeon Academy, and played for his hometown Chicago Bulls.

His accolades included winning the 2009 NBA Rookie of the Year and 2011 NBA MVP. Along the way, Rose helped reinvigorate excitement over the Bulls in the post-Michael Jordan era. Those heroics, among others, were honored properly on January 24 during his jersey retirement ceremony at the United Center.

One of the chroniclers of his career was Chicago-based basketball journalist and cultural critic Robert “Scoop” Jackson. He is out with a new book entitled Derrick Rose: The Poohprint, published by Assouline, per Bruce Goodwin II of Cassius Life.

In the book, Jackson works with Rose to share candid stories through text and photos that document his life.

Scoop Jackson saw something in Derrick Rose right away

In an exclusive interview with ClutchPoints, Jackson said he spoke at a Nike Basketball Camp in Chicago. He was there with the late Temple coach John Cheney. At the time, Rose was at Simeon Academy.

Little did Jackson know that the words he said would have a profound effect on Rose.

“I saw him in seventh grade, ” Jackson said. So that’s when I was aware of him. I didn’t know Derrick until maybe his junior year at Simeon, and I kind of speak about that a little bit in the book, I think it’s in the author’s page or something like that, where Nike had John Cheney and I come speak to like three or four high school basketball teams in Chicago, and Simeon was one of those teams.”

“So we spoke to them, and that’s when I met Derrick face to face, and the rest of the team, you know, a game of dap, you know, and all this that and the other, and that’s the point, I say I knew him. Knew about him probably four years before that, but I knew him.”

Scoop and Derrick come full circle.

Jackson, who was the co-founder of SLAM Magazine, was working for ESPN during Rose’s rookie year with Chicago in 2009. They reconnected for the first time since that initial meeting and picked up where they left off.

“So it was years later, as he’s a rookie with the Bulls, ESPN, you know, got assigned to do a story on Derrick Rose because of the rookie season he had, and it was going into the playoffs,” Jackson said.

“The first thing he says to me is man, I’ve been waiting on this because I remember every word you said when you came, spoke when you, when you and Coach Cheney spoke to us, when I was like a junior, when I was a senior, and I remember every word you said.”

“I was like, wow. I’ve had a lot of things said to me, but not that, you know, so that puts it into the realm where he’s a very astute, very curious individual, young man that soaks in things, and not that everything holds, but things hold, and certain things hold with him. You may not know what it is, he may not know what it is, but for some reason, certain things hold with him.”

Derrick Rose wanted to get something out of the game

Without argument, Chicago knows how to produce ballers. Maurice Cheeks, Ben Wilson, Nick Anderson, Michael Jordan, Dwayne Wade, Candace Parker, you name it.

Rose is a natural fit. Perhaps the literal “rose that grew from concrete” that Tupac Shakur later rhymed about.

For Rose, coming out of Englewood in the midst of hardship, he let basketball be his ticket to explore the world.

“He is a young man who, because of basketball, has seen the world,” Jackson said. “And not only has he seen it through his eyes, but he’s also seen the world through other people who have seen the world.”

Viraciously exploring the different facets of society through the lived experiences of those he balled with. One of whom was Luol Deng, who is from Sudan in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Though injuries later consumed him, it didn’t diminish Rose’s basketball pedigree. If anything, his success is making it out and excelling on his own terms.

He wasn’t just a rose that grew from concrete; he was a rose that fully blossomed.

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