NBA: Ranking every MVP winner in league history

SANTA MONICA, CA - JUNE 25: James Harden, winner of the 2017-2018 MVP award, poses with his mom Monja Willis in the backstage photo room during the 2018 NBA Awards at Barker Hangar on June 25, 2018 in Santa Monica, California. (Photo by Allen Berezovsky/Getty Images) /

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Derrick Rose (Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images) /

NBA: Ranking every MVP winner in league history: 33. Derrick Rose

Stats:

18.5 points
5.5 assists

Accomplishments:

Former Rookie of the Year
3 time All-Star
1 time All-NBA
1 time MVP

Sometimes, the basketball gods can be cruel. Such is the case with Derrick Rose.

Replacing Michael Jordan was always going to be virtually impossible. Many great players since him have walked into that Chicago Bulls locker room and breathed in that pressurized air, only to be crushed by it. For the homegrown Rose, however, he loved every bit of it.

If you haven’t seen Rose play when he was in the middle of his prime, it would be almost impossible to explain. The spin moves were picture-perfect, the cross-overs were unguardable, the speed broke necks and his ability to dunk on defenders made you check his sneakers for pogo sticks. Rose was flat-out great. There’s a reason why at the age of 22, he was the league’s youngest MVP ever.

Yet, for as fast as his rise to the top was, his fall from its lofty heights was depressing to watch. To put it simply, Rose’s highly athletic engine was too much for his feeble body to keep up with. After multiple tears to his meniscus and an ACL tear, Rose’s athleticism has gone by the wayside. While he’s still a very good player in the game today, he simply isn’t what he used to be.

If we lived in a perfect world, Rose would never have gotten hurt. And if that was the case, he would be much higher on this list.