Jabari Parker has never been afraid of Derrick Rose’s shadow. He has embraced it on every step of his basketball life. As he gets set to join the Chicago Bulls, the team Rose led back to prominence earlier in the decade, the parallels between the two proud South Side natives will only intensify. To Parker, the comparisons to Rose are a blessing, not a curse.
“He’s still a hero for a lot of people, including myself,” Parker told ESPN.com a few months ago. “And his legacy is gonna be, it’s going to be with the tops and historically with the best no matter what. … We embrace Derrick so much no matter what he does; he can stop playing now. He’s going to be a legend.”
The similarities between Parker and Rose’s journey to NBA stardom have never been hard to see. At Simeon Career Academy, Parker took his team to four straight state championships, following in the footsteps of the title that Rose won at the same high school. After watching Rose become the youngest MVP in NBA history at age 22, Parker became the second pick in the 2014 draft, suffering the same ACL injury in his left knee that Rose sustained in 2012 — only Parker did it twice — enduring the tedious rehab for a second time before returning in February of last season to mixed results.