Derrick Rose does more than dish on that Jimmy Butler practice in his new memoir. Rose shares plenty of tidbits from his early life in Englewood and the things he had to live through to make it to the league. One tidbit shared by the Chicago Tribune recalls Rose making it through a terrifying situation: drinking a full cup of bleach as a child.
The Tribune shares the info as a bullet pulled from a read-through of the unreleased book, saying that Rose mistook the cup for water when he was 9 or 10 years old.
It's far from the only close call Rose lived through. He said that he narrowly missed being burned by a jet of flame that shot out of the gas tank of an abandoned tow truck. The matches that he and a teenage friend were throwing into the tank likely helped it along.
Rose's picture of growing up in Chicago goes beyond the stuff he managed to survive. The racism of Chicago's de facto segregation is alluded to, with Rose noting that he didn't meet a white person until high school. It comes up again when he mentions that Illinois lost out on him as a college player because the head coach was nervous about visiting him in his home.
Rose still appears to be deeply distrustful of the media, especially in Chicago, but he still has love for his city and his former team. The city loves him back; fans showered him with MVP chants during a recent game in Chicago.
“That was just at the end and it was me who didn’t handle the criticism right," Rose admits. "There really was love for so long. I love Chicago, and I still love the Bulls.”
I'll Show You is expected to be released in September.
