After a record-setting, best-in-class celebration in 2025 when Derrick retired from the NBA, the Bulls returned to make and celebrate history – retiring Derrick Rose’s No. 1 jersey. An honor bestowed on only Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Bob Love and Jerry Sloan, in the franchise’s 60 years, Rose's jersey retirement transcended on-court achievements.
A hometown hero and symbol of the city, the jersey retirement went beyond basketball. Rose's legacy taps into an emotional vein of the city, one of incredible highs and lows. Derrick is a native Chicagoan who joined the Bulls as the number one overall draft pick in 2008. In just his third season, Derrick also became the youngest MVP in NBA history. A year after his MVP season, Derrick suffered a career and franchise-altering ACL injury and faced other setbacks in following seasons.
This was a monumental occasion in Bulls history, carefully crafted to honor Derrick and create moments for Bulls fans to deepen their connection to the organization. The Bulls, in partnership with Rose, developed an integrated 360° celebration and yearlong storytelling arc that brought forward the best of the Bulls for fans in the arena, across the city, and around the world.
This wasn't a typical jersey retirement ceremony, but something more: a celebration of an era, a city, of loss and pain, of family, and resilience.
PLANNING IN PARTNERSHIP
The Bulls and Derrick's team worked together to craft storytelling around this moment, building off the previous season’s celebration.
We spent months in private sessions with Derrick, walking through the highs and lows of his career. His story isn’t just about dunks and game-winning shots. It’s about the love that carried him through highlights and hardships. We began planning a celebration that honored his entire story.
BIGGER THAN ONE NIGHT
The Bulls employed an integrated, immersive months-long storytelling arc, creating emotional connections and giving fans unprecedented access.
Culminating in a post-game ceremony and giving Derrick the mic to tell his story in his own words, the Bulls went beyond the traditional jersey retirement. They transformed what could have been a single-game celebration into a moment that resonated in the arena, across the city and around the world, setting the standard for how teams can best celebrate their alumni.
ROOTED IN CHICAGO
With shared roots, Rose and the Bulls made sure the celebration reflected the spirit of their vibrant city through:
GLOBAL REACH
Given both the Bulls’ and Derrick’s global fanbases, the celebration went worldwide with seven watch parties at NBA Hoop Parks in China, a Tencent broadcast, and an exclusive talk-back interview with Derrick following the ceremony at the Shenzen watch party.
The story came to life across the Bulls social channels, connecting with more than 45 million followers (70% based outside of the US) in four different languages.
ONE-OF-ONE: EXCLUSIVE EXPERIENCES AND CONTENT
Derrick Rose Jersey Retirement Night, presented by State Farm, delivered best-in-class engagement across multiple platforms, creating a cultural moment and demonstrating powerful storytelling, locally and globally.
The team’s advance planning and social responsiveness enabled it to cover the moment online for its more than 204M global fans. The team improved and continued the virality of the social coverage during the 2025 celebration, totaling nearly 200M impressions, 10.5M engagements and 73M video views across 200+ posts.
The leading driver was the ceremony itself, with 35M impressions, ensuring Bulls fans caught the must-see moments directly on Bulls channels. Underscoring the global relevance of this very Chicago celebration, the Bulls gained nearly 15K new followers across international social media accounts.
The global media strategy, including an op-ed in the Chicago Tribune from Michael Reinsdorf, delivered 1.64K stories across 32 countries. With headline coverage from national outlets like ESPN to hyperlocal coverage around the community project, the Bulls secured celebratory commentary outside the organization – validating and adding to the moment.
Ultimately, the steady drumbeat of storytelling across channels allowed fans to be part of the celebration. As CBS Sports shared, “the Bulls pulled out all the stops in celebrating the city's favorite son…The grandeur of the ceremony, and everything leading up to it, exemplified just how much the Bulls, NBA fans and players, and the city of Chicago appreciates Rose.”
It was about celebrating a cultural icon, telling the story of Derrick’s No. 1 and delivering a once-in-a-lifetime moment that fans would cherish.
