Rose enters rare air as he joins Jordan, Pippen, Sloan and Love as only Bulls with retired numbers

CHICAGO (AP) — Derrick Rose figured he would experience all sorts of emotions when he saw his banner hang from the rafters. They started flowing long before the moment arrived.

The Chicago Bulls retired his No. 1 following their win over the Boston Celtics on Saturday night. And the kid who went from growing up in a rough South Side neighborhood to starring for his hometown team was ready for the moment.

“I had someone or a journalist ask me, ‘Man, did you cry?’ I told him I cry every day,” Rose said. "And he asked about what. Being joyful, knowing where I grew up, knowing my coming back here, my being practical with knowing the economy, with me being there, and the neighborhoods. And you just know.

"That’s one of the reasons why I came back, is to curate things and to employ people.”

Rose joined Michael Jordan (23), Scottie Pippen (33), Jerry Sloan (4) and Bob Love (10) as the only players whose numbers have been retired by the team.

He shed tears during emotional speeches by former teammates Taj Gibson, Luol Deng and Joakim Noah and by coach Tom Thibodeau. He got choked up when he addressed his mother and older brothers as well as his wife, two sons and daughter. There were hugs and smiles, too, when the banner was unveiled.

Rose had already gotten a glimpse at it. On Friday, the Bulls posted video on social media of him seeing it for the first time.

Rose said seeing the banner was “unreal.” But it hadn't really sunk in.

“All this, the moment, I’m still trying to take in, I’m still trying to process in real time,” he said. “And yeah, and just feeling grateful, you know what I mean? Like knowing the weather conditions out there, knowing that it’s a Chicago thing to even show up here, to fight through that and still go to an event. It’s huge, so it’s something that I’m grateful for.”

The video the Bulls posted shows a wide-eyed Rose walking out to center court. He lets out a “wow, are you serious?” as he gazes at the unfurled banner in front of the scorer's table. He squats, walks over and touches it, rubbing his hand over the No. 1. He's then joined by his family as well as former teammates Joakim Noah, Taj Gibson and Kirk Hinrich.

Noah says in the video seeing Rose's number raised to the rafters “is our championship moment.”

On Saturday, there were black Rose jerseys at each seat. The Bulls posted video from Jordan and Pippen congratulating him. Rose left roses from his flower shop — Rose's Flower Shop — in both teams' locker rooms before the game.

“He instilled that heart, he instilled that trust in us and that made us come out and fight for you every single night,” Gibson told the crowd.

Former coach Tom Thibodeau called Rose “a basketball savant" whose humility is what really made him stand out.

“The next stop, in my opinion, is the Hall of Fame and there is no doubt about that,” he said.

This isn't the first time the team honored Rose. The Bulls did it when they played New York on Jan. 4, 2025, symbolizing the date as well as the numbers he wore with the Bulls as well as the Knicks and Chicago's Simeon Career Academy. That same day, the Bulls announced they would retire Rose's jersey.

Rose, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2008 NBA draft, went from being Rookie of the Year to an All-Star to NBA MVP in his first three seasons. He remains the league’s youngest MVP, winning it when he was 22.

A major knee injury during the 2012 playoffs forced him to miss almost two full seasons and he contemplated stepping away from the game several times following other injury issues.

Rose averaged 17.4 points and 5.2 assists in 723 regular-season games. He averaged 21 points per game before the ACL tear 12 years ago and 15.1 per game in the seasons that followed. But he doesn't dwell on what might have been.

At 37, Rose is more focused on his family and business interests, like an online flower shop and employing people from the city. Or his work promoting participation in chess, particularly among at-rise youngsters. He's not all that interested in working in basketball.

“Everybody thinks the the path or the motif was, 'All right, after you get done, you gotta go back and be around basketball,'” he said. “I didn’t want that. I wanted to curate things or be in lanes that nobody was in. Coming from Chicago, when you tend to enter lanes that people are in, you step on toes and certain things can happen.

"So with me having that in mind, I wanted curate things so that I don’t have to worry about any competition.”

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Former Chicago Bulls player Derrick Rose, talks during a press conference before an NBA basketball game against the Boston Celtics, Saturday, Jan. 24, 2026, in Chicago. Rose's jersey will be retired after the game today. (AP Photo/Matt Marton)

Former Chicago Bulls player Derrick Rose, center, laughs while talking with writer Sam Smith, right, after a press conference, before an NBA basketball game against the Boston Celtics, Saturday, Jan. 24, 2026, in Chicago. Rose's jersey will be retired after the game today. (AP Photo/Matt Marton)

Former Chicago Bulls player Derrick Rose, smiles after a press conference before an NBA basketball game against the Boston Celtics, Saturday, Jan. 24, 2026, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Matt Marton)

Chicago Bulls guard Kevin Huerter walks into United Center wearing a jersey for former player Derrick Rose before an NBA basketball game against the Boston Celtics, Saturday, Jan. 24, 2026, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Matt Marton)

Former Chicago Bulls player Derrick Rose, left, fist bumps fans before an NBA basketball game against the Boston Celtics, Saturday, Jan. 24, 2026, in Chicago. Rose's jersey will be retired after the game today. (AP Photo/Matt Marton)

ISLAMABAD (AP) — An affiliate of the Islamic State group claimed responsibility overnight for a deadly suicide bombing inside a Shiite mosque on the outskirts of Pakistan’s capital that killed 31 people and wounded 169 others, as mourners gathered Saturday under tight security at the same mosque for funerals for the victims.

The regional Islamic State affiliate, known as Islamic State in Pakistan, claimed responsibility in a statement posted on its Amaq News Agency. It said the attacker arrived opened fire on security guards who tried to stop him at the main gate and detonated his explosive vest after reaching the mosque’s inner gate.

The Islamic State group suggested it viewed the Pakistani Shiites as legitimate targets, calling them a “human reservoir” that provided recruits to Shiite militias fighting the Islamic State in Syria.

Friday’s mosque bombing was the deadliest in Islamabad since a 2008 suicide bombing at the Marriott Hotel that killed 63 people and wounded more than 250. In November, a suicide bomber struck outside a court in the capital, killing 12 people.

The latest attack comes as Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s government has had to deal with a surge in militant attacks across Pakistan. According to Pakistani authorities, the attacker was a Pakistani national who had recently traveled to Afghanistan.

Authorities said several suspects, including the brother, mother and other relatives of the bomber, were arrested during overnight raids in Islamabad and in northwestern Pakistan, and that a police officer was killed in the operation.

More than 2,000 grief-stricken mourners gathered as coffins of those killed were brought to the mosque for funerals. Senior government officials and leaders of the Shiite community were among those who attended the funerals for about a dozen victims. Funerals of other victims were to be held in their home towns.

IS is a Sunni group that has targeted Pakistan's Shiite minority in the past, apparently seeking to stoke sectarian divisions in the majority Sunni country. In 2022 it claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing that struck a Shiite Muslim mosque in Pakistan’s northwestern city of Peshawar, killing at least 56 and wounding 194.

Pakistan's Defense Minister Khawaja Mohammad Asif told reporters Friday that the attack signaled that Pakistan-based militants operating from Afghanistan could strike even in the capital.

His remarks drew a sharp response from Afghanistan’s Taliban government.

In a statement, Afghanistan’s Defense Ministry condemned the mosque attack in Islamabad but said the Pakistani defense minister had “irresponsibly” linked it to Afghanistan. Pakistan has frequently accused Afghanistan, where the Taliban returned to power in August 2021, of harboring militants, including members of the Pakistani Taliban. Kabul denies the accusations.

The attack also drew condemnation from the international community, including the United States, Russia and the European Union.

Prime Minister Sharif said he was grateful for the messages of sympathy and support received “from across the globe” following what he called a “heart-wrenching suicide attack in Islamabad.” He said international support remained critical to Pakistan’s counterterrorism efforts and vowed the perpetrators would be brought to justice.

Although Pakistan's capital has seen relatively few attacks compared with other regions, the country has experienced a recent rise in militant violence. Much of it has been blamed on Baloch separatist groups and the Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, which is a separate group but allied with Afghanistan’s Taliban.

Associated Press writers Samy Magdy in Cairo, Riaz Khan and Rasool Dawar in Peshawar, Pakistan and Ishtiaq Mahsud in Dera Ismail Khan, Pakistan, contributed to this story.

Pakistani paramilitary soldiers control a crowd close to the site of a bomb explosion at a Shiite mosque, in Islamabad, Pakistan, Friday, Feb. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Anjum Naveed)

Relatives and volunteers transport a victim of bomb explosion in a Shiite mosque, from at a hospital in Islamabad, Pakistan, Friday, Feb. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/M.A Sheikh)

Relatives and volunteers transport a victim of bomb explosion in a Shiite mosque, from at a hospital in Islamabad, Pakistan, Friday, Feb. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/M.A Sheikh)