Former Terps Star Hits Game Winner On Derrick Rose Jersey Retirement Night
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It was a special night at the United Center last night. One of Chicago's own, Derrick Rose, had his jersey retired by the Chicago Bulls, celebrating an excellent career for the former point guard in front of fans, family, friends, former teammates, and coaches. Joining Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Jerry Sloan, and Bob Love as the only Bulls players with their numbers retired in franchise history.
Rose (37) spent seven seasons playing in front of his hometown Chicago Bulls, where he was selected by the franchise with the number one overall pick in the 2008 NBA Draft and highlighted by becoming the youngest player ever to win the NBA MVP award in the 2010-11 season also guiding his team to the Eastern Conference Finals, and a game-winning shot against the Cleveland Cavaliers in game 3 of the 2015 Eastern Conference Semifinals.
It was a story of what ifs for Rose during his time with Chicago, overshadowed by injuries, the major one coming during the 2012 season, when the Bulls finished as the No. 1 team in the Eastern Conference meeting up with the Philadelphia 76ers in the opening round of the playoffs that saw Rose tear his ACL with less that two minutes left in Game one with the Bulls ahead by double digits.
Now back to the game against the Boston Celtics. It was a tight back-and-forth contest all night. The Celtics were led by superstar Jaylen Brown, who shouldered the offensive load with 33 points.
Chicago led 111-107 with 3:29 in the fourth quarter after Nikola Vucevic made a layup. The Chicago offense went cold over the next three minutes, scoring no baskets. Boston was no better, but two timely layups by Brown, with the second one coming off a missed tip-back dunk by another former Terp, Jalen Smith, helped tie things up at 111 with 14.2 seconds on the clock.
On the ensuing play, Colby White found Kevin Huerter in the corner, who drained an open three-pointer that all but ended the game, leaving .2 seconds left on the clock.
BIG TIME PLAYERS MAKE BIG TIME PLAYS.@KevinHuerter | @CHSN__ pic.twitter.com/O85Ed9oPHy
— Chicago Bulls (@chicagobulls) January 25, 2026
Huerter re-enacted Rose's blank face celebration from 2015 against the Cavs in the playoffs a fitting ending for a special night.
Huerter finished the night with 12 points on 5-of-7 shooting, hitting two 3-pointers, grabbing six rebounds, and dishing out three assists.
It's been a pretty average season for Huerter, who's provided the Bulls with a steady shooting presence off the bench, averaging 11.3 points on 46% FG shooting and 32% from the three-point line. But he's been productive in January, scoring in double figures seven times.
Rose signed Huerter's game-winning ball after the game in the clip below....
“I'm signing this ball because Kevin Huerter just hit the game-winner and I gotta show him some love.”
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) January 25, 2026
Derrick Rose signed the game ball for Kevin Huerter 🙏
(via @chicagobulls)pic.twitter.com/jTqyprdVWO https://t.co/RkREGmKm6f
Jaden's sports journalism career began at the College of Southern Maryland from 2022-2023, where he was brought in to cover baseball, softball, basketball, soccer, and volleyball at CSM. In late 2023, he began interning at the University of Maryland Athletics Department as a contributing writer to help develop feature stories and game recaps. He also creates his own sports media content on professional Washington teams with LegacyMaker Sports Network.