LeBron James Makes First Remarks After Former Teammate Derrick Rose's Retirement

The NBA world received surprising news on Thursday morning after former MVP Derrick Rose announced his retirement. Even though the 35-year-old was still under contract with the Memphis Grizzlies for another year, Rose decided to call it quits after 16 years in the league.

LeBron James didn't waste any time before giving his respect to his former teammate. He posted Rose's farewell message on his Instagram with the captions "Salute" and "Forever Immortalized".

NBA News: LeBron James Gives Respect to Derrick Rose After Retirement

Rose and James joined forces in the 2017 offseason in Cleveland. The Cavs were coming off a Finals loss to the Warriors and they brought in veteran talent in the summer. However, Rose's Cleveland tenure was filled with frustration and disappointment.

Rose left the Cavaliers to re-evaluate his basketball future after constant injuries forced him to question his desire to play. He was eventually traded mid-season and joined the Timberwolves. Rose was miraculously able to revive his career and became a sought-after veteran in his later years, playing a huge part in New York's postseason runs between 2021 and 2023.

Even though LeBron James and Rose were never able to find success together on the same team, their battles in the Eastern Conference will forever be remembered. Rose's Chicago teams were consistently going up against James's Cavs in the playoffs but always came up short. The two also battled it out in the MVP race when Rose polarizingly won in 2011 over LeBron in his first year in Miami.

Rose will always be remembered as one of the biggest "what ifs" in NBA history. His knee injury in the 2012 playoffs ended his prime prematurely and we never saw the same Rose again. He deserves all the praise in the world for being able to carve out a nice career as a role player afterward but every basketball fan is left wondering what else could have been.

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