It was about 50 degrees in Chicago on Monday afternoon, or approximately 50 degrees warmer than it was a week ago at this time. That in itself seemed to make for a perfectly good excuse to walk throughout the city’s northwest neighborhoods to the I-90 underpass on Fullerton Ave. where a new memorial to currently injured Chicago Bulls star Derrick Rose went up over the weekend.
I visited Derrick Rose’s roadside memorial under a highway overpass in Chicago
Emoji candles, printed out tweets and so much more.
Ricky O'Donnell has covered basketball at all levels for more than a decade at SB Nation. He’s currently the Associate Director of Programming.
If this particular underpass sounds familiar, it’s because a salt runoff (or divine miracle) caused locals to form an homage to the Virgin Mary back in 2005 at the same location. The tribute to Rose shares similar religious undertones, only with a hint (we hope) of sarcasm. As has been said before, Rose means a lot to this city.
There’s plenty going on there, so we decided to take inventory. This is what people leave at a memorial for a point guard who is supposed to be back on the court in a few weeks. A vigil for Jimmy Butler’s elbow has yet to be planned.
2 crutches
Derrick didn’t need them after surgery so at least they were put to good use.
6 knee pads
I’m not a doctor, but I don’t think these would have saved him.
12 candles
There was a candle of Phil Jackson dressed like the pope, candles of Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen photoshopped into classic Catholic imagery and, of course, a candle featuring a sketch of the praying hands emoji outfitted with Chicago’s six championship rings.
1 basketball
It had a fitting message.
1 picture of Rose before the injuries
1 picture of Rose after tearing his ACL in 2012
1 bulletin board of printed out tweets from NBA players supporting Rose
Tweets on paper! Ricky Rubio, John Wall, Ben McLemore and others made an appearance. Count the retweets.
A whole bunch of roses
Some aluminum cans and other assorted pieces of garbage
Yuck.
★★★
The mural was put together by two local Bulls fans and a vigil was held on Sunday at noon. Of course there was someone there wearing Rose’s No. 25 Simeon jersey from high school. (Picture via my friend Jackie. Hi Jackie!):
Rose is expected to be back in three weeks. Prayers up.
(All photos via Ricky O’Donnell/SB Nation unless otherwise noted)
