After more than 15 years, Derrick Rose is back in Memphis.
The former Tigers star guard signed a two-year, $6.5 million deal with the Grizzlies Friday night. He’ll back up Marcus Smart for the first 25 games of the season. Afterwards, he’ll back up Ja Morant for the following 57 games. He’ll likely play the same role when and if the Grizzlies make the playoffs.
Free agent Derrick Rose has agreed on a two-year deal with the Memphis Grizzlies, source tells ESPN. Grizzlies want Rose on the floor this season and as a leader in locker room. @IanBegley first reported.
Rose will be a nice, veteran addition for the Grizzlies. Memphis’ NBA franchise became better than it was at this time last week because of him. If Memphis wants to become a legitimate championship contender—which it does—signing Rose is a move that pushes that dream in the right direction.
But everyone knows that’s not what makes this signing significant. What Rose can be for the Grizzlies next season isn’t why Memphians are buzzing about his return to the Bluff City.
A Trip Down Memory Lane
Once upon a time, Rose played basketball for the University of Memphis Tigers. He played at the school for one year specifically: 2007-08.
A 5-star recruit from Simeon Career Academy in Chicago, Ill., Rose was among the most heralded prospects of the John Calipari era at Memphis. Many considered him to be the missing piece the Tigers needed to get over the hump.
It was obvious that the Tigers were a team that was so close, yet not so far. All they needed was just one more big star, an x-factor to leap them over the edge.
And guess what. The fans were right. Rose was that x-factor, that big star.
The 6-foot-3 guard averaged 14.9 points, 4.7 assists and 4.5 rebounds per game while shooting 47.7% from the field and 33.7% from three-point range during his lone season at Memphis. He, Douglas-Roberts, Anderson, Dorsey and Dozier led the 2008 Tigers to a 26-0 start and a 30-1 regular season record.
However, the NCAA Tournament is where Rose truly shined. The freshman guard led Memphis to wins over UT-Arlington, Mississippi State, Michigan State, Texas and UCLA to advance to the National Championship game. In that stretch, Rose averaged 20.8 points, 6.5 rebounds and 6 assists per game.
The Tigers finished the season 38-2, the best record in Memphis basketball history. This was, and still is, Memphis’ best team ever. And Rose was perhaps its biggest contributor.
What You Need to Know
Even though he didn’t win Memphis a title, he did more than enough to live in Tiger-lore forever. Everyone thought that he would go to the NBA Draft, go first overall and that his legacy at Memphis would live happily ever after.
The first two parts of that did come to fruition. The third part, however, was ruined. The NCAA happened. We don’t need to talk about it.
All you need to know is that as far as the NCAA is concerned, Rose and the 2008 Tigers hardly exist. All banners of the team were taken down, and anything Rose did was omitted from the record books.
It’s Time to Let Rose Back In
In saying that, the record books don’t really matter. Everyone saw what Rose and the Tigers accomplished. Everyone knows that it happened. No matter what, the NCAA can’t ever take those memories away.
Ironically, the only ones that aren’t allowed to relive them are Rose and Memphis. Rose hasn’t stepped foot on campus since 2008. He’s barely even mentioned the school since that time. The school has been prohibited from mentioning him altogether since 2009.
Just so we’re clear, nobody is arguing that Rose should’ve been eligible in 2008. Someone else took his SAT for him. There isn’t a clearer violation than that.
What’s flawed about this situation is the fact that Memphis was punished via wiping off the record books. Rose was punished via public humiliation and harsh scrutiny from fans and media alike. And yet, to this day, the man who orchestrated it all in the first place hasn’t suffered a single consequence.
But now is the perfect opportunity for the NCAA to make things right. Let Rose come back to campus. Let Memphis put the banner back up. It’s just a banner after all.
Keep the record books erased if you’d like. Again, it really doesn’t matter.
What does matter is being able to acknowledge what Rose and the ’08 Tigers did. The legacy they created. The standard they set that hasn’t been equaled since.
Now that he’s back, Rose should be welcome everywhere in the 901.
That includes the Laurie Walton-Basketball Center, the University of Memphis and, especially, up in the rafters at FedExForum.
Senior Editor for Tiger Blueprint. See more of my work on Bluff City Media, where I’m the Memphis basketball beat writer, the Men in Hoodies podcast on Apple and Spotify and on “Sports with Roman Cleary” live on University of Memphis Radio—The ROAR Fridays from 3-4 p.m. during the fall and spring.
