At the 2006 IHSA Class AA state basketball tournament, Derrick Rose and Simeon defeated Patrick Beverley and Marshall in the semifinals en route to respective first- and third-place finishes.
Beverley moved on to Arkansas and, after a three-year stint playing overseas, an 11-year NBA career that has led him back to his hometown Chicago Bulls.
Rose and Simeon repeated as IHSA state champions in 2007 before Rose played one season at Memphis and returned home to the Bulls as the No. 1 overall pick in 2008.
Asked to reflect upon the significance of that game following Monday’s practice at the Advocate Center, Beverley grew eloquent.
“When you’re in it, you’re so focused on ball that you don’t even know you’re in it,” he said. “At that age, you’re just trying to win some basketball games.”
“You’re talking about a relationship of, like, a brotherhood of me and DRose. We talk all the time. His friends are my friends. My friends are his friends. ‘I need a car, DRose. I need somewhere to stay. Give me a place. Anything you want, Pat.’
“His girl flies in. He’s not there yet. She’s at my house. I’m not even at my house. Our brotherhood is way deeper than basketball. Like, we’re real brothers.
“To come here after him and kind of represent the city the right way and embrace it a little bit more, that’s been my thing. Just embrace it. That’s some advice he gave me, that he says he wished he would’ve done more and that’s embrace the city. People that’s been here before me, I like to listen more than I like to talk. Embracing it is one of the words I heard.”
Rose quietly did plenty for the city of Chicago. From a $1 million donation to the Chicago-based non-profit After School Matters to the joy he produced throughout a fan base as he became the youngest most valuable player in NBA history and opened up a championship window before knee injuries derailed him, he was viewed as a city icon.
But when the New York Knicks visited the United Center for consecutive games in December, a reflective and upbeat Rose offered a somewhat surprising admission.
“Coming back, just seeing it, makes you kind of reminisce about the older days when I was playing here. In hindsight, you always wish you had cherished things a little bit more,” Rose said then. “I wish I had danced a little bit or something. Ja Morant or something, you know what I mean? Gave a little dance.
“But seriously, you know how it is, you’re older and look back at it. The times I didn’t go out to concerts or dinners when I had all the time in the world to do that. That’s something I didn’t do. And that’s something I would’ve cherished doing when I was here.”
So Beverley is trying to do it now.
