Derrick Rose Is Bringing Back His High School Jersey Number With The Knicks

Before his tumultuous career with the Chicago Bulls, Derrick Rose was a top high-school recruit at Simeon Career Academy. In those days, he wore No. 25 in honor of Ben Wilson, a Simeon high-school prospect who was killed in a shooting in 1984.

Now that Rose has been traded to the Knicks, he’s going back to his roots. The team tweeted a picture of Rose in a No. 25 jersey, as well as the jersey hanging in his new locker at Madison Square Garden.

In 2012, when ESPN premiered a 30 for 30 documentary about Wilson, Rose talked about the significance of the number 25 in an interview with K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune:

Like Anderson, like fellow NBA player Bobby Simmons before him, Derrick Rose wore No. 25 at Simeon. Best players. Tradition.

“It was an honor because Benji was a legend,” Rose says.

Rose wasn’t born when Wilson died but, like all Simeon basketball players, he received the book written by Wilson’s mother, Mary, detailing her son’s life. Rose read it in one sitting.

“They tried to keep his spirit alive, not just in the program but throughout the whole school,” Rose says. “Benji meant so much to us, and his story really scared me, knowing it happened to a great player. Anything can happen.

“I just wanted to stay out of the negative. I didn’t go to parties or stupid places. I was a loner. I didn’t go nowhere but to my friends’ houses and home.”

As Rose attempts to get his career back on track after several disappointing, injury-filled seasons, it’s a nice gesture to go back to his beginnings, and to a tradition that means so much to him.