As you may have heard, Team USA won gold at the FIBA World Cup this month in Spain without really being given much of a challenge. While their collective play was dominant, the play of Derrick Rose, one of their biggest stars, left a lot to be desired.
Rose finished the tournament with averages of 4.8 points (including a horrendous 1-19 from behind the shorter FIBA three point line), 1.9 rebounds, and 3.1 assists while being thoroughly outplayed by his point guard teammates Kyrie Irving and Stephen Curry. This was quite a far cry from this MVP campaign of 2011, which saw him average 25 points, 7.7 assists, and 4.1 rebounds. Many said that Rose’s play could be deemed a “success” simply because he was back on the court and healthy after years of injuries. I’m a bit more pessimistic, and really hope that what we saw in the World Cup is not what we are going to see this upcoming NBA season.
His recent poor showing, as well as his unfortunate injury history got me thinking: if Rose does not regain his MVP form from a few years ago, are we looking at possibly the most disappointing career for an MVP in the NBA’s history?
For the purposes of this article, I looked only at post-merger MVP winners and their respective careers to see where Rose might fall in the discussion. Keep in mind that this is completely hypothetical and that I fully expect Rose to get back to his All-Star level of play and have a successful career.
When looking at every MVP winner since 1976, we can obviously exclude the who’s who of NBA legends (Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird and the like), most of whom have a collection of NBA championship rings. I could not consider anyone who has an NBA championship to be the worst of the MVPs, with one exception, as you’ll see. This leaves a list of MVPs that includes Charles Barkley, Karl Malone, Allen Iverson, Steve Nash, and Kevin Durant.
It’s difficult for me to put Rose ahead of Barkley and Malone, two Hall of Fame players who are easily in the top 50 NBA players of all-time. If Rose’s career abruptly ended at this point, he doesn’t touch those two. The more interesting cases are Iverson and Nash, who played the same position as Rose.
Nash won back-to-back MVPs (the merit of which can be debated another time), something which has only been done by ten of the game’s greatest players. His failure to win an NBA title is disappointing, but he is one of the greatest point guards ever (defense notwithstanding) and is a guaranteed Hall of Famer. Iverson is also headed to the Hall of Fame and won his MVP playing a similar style to Rose. Iverson’s place on the all-time scoring list and his reputation as one of the toughest players in the league put him ahead of Rose here, although I think Rose has the potential for an Iverson-like career with his athleticism and scoring abilities. That said, Rose still falls well behind both Nash and Iverson.
Kevin Durant is an interesting case, given his entry into the league around the same time as Rose. Durant is coming off his first of what could be many MVP seasons, and is the clear number 2 player in the NBA. With good health, Durant will continue to climb the career scoring list and compete for MVP awards, hopefully with some titles as well. To date his career has surpassed that of Rose, and will only continue to ascend.
I included one title-winning MVP in my comparison, whose career arc is hopefully not mirrored by Rose. Bill Walton won an MVP in the 1977-78 season and an NBA title in the 70s as one of the greatest big men the league had ever seen. Unfortunately injuries crippled Walton’s promising career, and he never was the same. He did recover to be a sixth-man of the year for the juggernaut ‘86 Celtics, but injuries prevented him from becoming an all-time great. Still, an MVP with two titles (not to mention his outstanding college career at UCLA) is a successful career, even if limited due to foot issues. This might be Rose’s closest competition if his career were to end today.
Out of all the NBA MVP award winners post-merger, there is a short list of players that could be considered the “worst” of that distinguished group. Of that list, Derrick Rose is the least accomplished, and his career has been marred with injuries since winning the award in 2011 (some might say he only won due to Lebron fatigue, but alas, he has the trophy). His FIBA World Cup comeback didn’t do much to excite Bulls fans, and we still don’t know whether Rose can compete at an all-star level. If he cannot regain his elite play, we could be looking at the most disappointing career for an NBA MVP in the league’s history.
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Main Photo
By Keith Allison from Owings Mills, USA (Derrick Rose) [CC-BY-SA-2.0], via Wikimedia Commons
