Not Jojan! Rose revealed that the GOAT in his heart is a smiling assassin and chose the top five in the active team to forget Alexander

On June 3, Beijing time, former NBA star Derrick Rose appeared at Adi European Basketball Training Camp to share his life wisdom with young players with dreams. In an exclusive interview with HoopsHype, Rose reflected on his evolving identity off the court, the realities of life after retiring and the mental toughness needed to grind in the NBA. He also revealed that the GOAT in his heart is not Jordan or James, but the "smiling assassin" Thomas. The following is a selection of interviews –

Q: What is it like to be at the Adi Europe Training Camp?

Ross: It's cool to come here and see the kids training hard, seeing their dedication, and some of the kids being amazingly tall. This made me realize that the game of basketball is evolving into a completely different kind of "positionless basketball". I'm glad to have entered the league in my own time, because now 1.91 meters tall is not enough to look at (laughs).

Q: Can you elaborate on what your "next chapter" means after you retire?

Rose: Oh, self-awareness, self-identity, and self-revelation. These three keys are to figure out who I really am as a young man who retired early and still has a long life ahead of me. I needed to make sure that I was more strategic in my actions, more cautious in moving forward with the project, and really showing my essence as a person, rather than having people see me as just an athlete or a "basketball player."

Q: So you're going to keep starting new chapters? Like the chess league or something?

Rose: You mentioned the chess league, and there are a few areas that I don't want to go into detail — otherwise I could be sued (laughs). But in short, it's all big deals.

Q: What advice would you give to young players?

ROSE: For young players, there are three levels to everything — no, not everything, but if you want to play in the NBA, you have to cross those three levels. The NBA's full name is "No Boys Allowed". These three levels are: good, bad, and bad. The "bad" aspects include surgery, death of a family member, etc.; "Bad" aspects, such as bad teammates; The "good" aspects are something that everyone can deal with, such as awards, achievements. But if you can survive the first two levels – bad and bad, like surgery, mental issues, etc., just stay focused (because everything is a mental test) and you can get a foothold in the league and have a long career.

Q: How do you plan to continue playing basketball after you retire?

Ross: My way of getting involved is that, like now, coming to the European camps, encouraging the kids, talking to them, and letting them learn from me. I was talking to them about pick-and-roll tactics and how to stay defensive in pick-and-rolls — that's what kids need to hear because I've heard that a lot of times back in the day. If I can help them, at least let those concepts take root in their minds right now, so that when they go into the NBA and face coaches, they know what to do in training.

Q: You've said you're a "Hall of Famer" in the eyes of your Chicago hometown, what does that recognition mean to you?

Ross: When I say that, it's really about "setting the standard." A lot of people around me in Chicago will say to me, "You're the first person to do this for me, the first person to open my eyes." "When I chase my dreams, I never do it to be the first person to do something, but because I'm passionate about something and want to achieve it in a particular way.

I don't like to talk about the Hall of Fame. But when you ask Chicago kids "who is Derrick Rose," or bring me up on the streets of Chicago — the goals I set for my family, and the accomplishments I'm still pursuing after I retire, I think it's already a "Hall of Fame" thing. I want to let the results speak for themselves, not for me. Like my retirement video, the "Rose series" documentary, the video of the White Sox kick-off — these are things that other basketball players haven't tried yet. I feel like it's opening up a new path, and that's what the Hall of Fame is all about.

Q: Have you ever asked your doctor or God "why me" when you have been through many injuries or illnesses?

Ross: I never asked the doctors why they were hurt, they just gave me medical explanations. But I asked God many times. But then I stopped asking, and I knew I had to learn to take the blow, and that's the resilience in Chicagoans — if I can get out of there, I can get anywhere. God brought me out of Chicago and brought me back again, and I thought, "I'm here now, I have to have some kind of mission." What is my mission? "As I've gotten older, I've come to understand that my mission is to show people: you can get through it.

Q: Who is your best player of all time (GOAT)? Who are the current top five in the NBA?

Rose: Now my GOAT is Isaiah Thomas, because he's from Chicago and the only one who has beaten Johnson "Magic" Johnson, Michael Jordan and Larry Bird at his peak, and he's only 1.91m, which is "Chicago".

I used to say Jordan, but I wasn't playing the number two, and I didn't score like he did. I just appreciate his story.

If you pick the top five on the active roster now: Stephen Curry for point guard, Anthony Edwards for shooting guard, Kevin Durant for small forward, LeBron James for power forward (because he's playing like a number four right now), and Nicola Jokic for center. It's not disrespectful to other active players, these are just the five people that come to my mind. Wait, I forgot Shay (Gilgeous-Alexander)! Brother, Shay, I'm sorry!