Derrick Rose's career is full of what-ifs, but the fact it lasted this long is the real wonder

The word that comes to mind, or rather to the heart of everything with Derrick Rose, is focus.

It takes an inordinate amount of focus to make it through a treacherous road to even get to a professional level and even more steel to elevate.

For Rose, the Chicago-born-and-bred kid who quietly announced his retirement Thursday morning — while taking out ads in the newspapers of the cities where he played — it’s something more than focus, because his career was so winding, so spellbinding and, at times, so damned confusing.

He’ll probably be the only Most Valuable Player in NBA history to not make the Naismith Hall of Fame, even if he has a case by mere imprint on the game. Hopefully, the Bulls will retire his jersey even though they inexplicably gave the No. 1 away a couple times since his 2016 trade to the New York Knicks.

That matters but only so much to Chicago — a city that’s as tough on its own as it is warm to the same figures it holds impossible expectations for. You’d be hard-pressed to find a player-city relationship so complicated, so layered and yet, so valuable to the overall culture and feeling the way Rose was married to Chicago.