The first Out Of Bounds of 2025 is HERE! May this new year bring you as much love as the city of Chicago has for Derrick Rose and as much fortune as Steve Ballmer has poured into the Los Angeles Clippers.

Today’s Lineup

🌹 Derrick Rose Night

The Bulls hosted one of the best hoops ceremonies we can remember last week to celebrate Derrick Rose. The United Center was decked out with decorations for Chicago’s very own and the Bulls announced that Rose’s #1 would be retired and hung in the rafters alongside MJ, Scottie Pippen, Jerry Sloan and Bob Love!

Ex-teammates and coaches flocked to the UC to celebrate their guy. Carlos Boozer, Coach John Calapari, and Brian “White Mamba” Scalabrine were all in the building. At halftime, Joakim Noah interviewed the star of the night for 15 minutes. Take a look here:

Three days prior, Rose opened a pop-up flower shop called “Rose’s” that allowed fans to send free rose bouquets to someone in Chicago who made a positive impact on their lives. We love that Rose and his team used this opportunity to spread positivity throughout the city! The line wrapped around several blocks, and it was great to see how much love those thousands of people have for Rose and their fellow Chicagoans!

Earlier in the week, a beautiful flower mural appeared on the Clyburn Park basketball court. Apparently it was made from 100,000 flowers!?! Chi-Town has so much love for their hometown hero. ❤️

👟 Our Favorite New Hoops Colorways

Let's take a look at our favorite kicks we’ve seen on the court the past few weeks! 

First up, we LOVE the KD 17 “Easy Money” colorway. It looks as if we’re looking at the pair through some sort of prism, and the dollar pattern at the base is super dope. As funky as Kevin Durant, you could say.

This “Year of the Snake” colorway of the Steph Curry 12 is sooooo smooth. The color pattern echoes those Chinese New Year jerseys the Warriors had a few years ago (those were goated), and the material having a snakeskin texture is a master stroke. January 29th marks the beginning of the Year of the Snake, so maybe that’s when the Dubs will turn the ship around!

Puma is always great at working outside the box, and they absolutely snapped with this Dennis Schroder PE for their All-Pro Nitros. This graffiti/crayon/watercolor thing is different, and it just makes sense for the German who bleaches a streak of blonde into his hair.

Lastly, the Nike GT Cut 3 is a sick retro vibe, but what’s incredible about these are the logos on the heels: two C’s linked together to make a star. Whose new logo could this be? Cade Cunningham! The Pistons star has been on a tear this year, and his team at Nike knocked his branding out of the park!

Last week, Anthony Edwards met Luca, a 5-year-old fan battling leukemia. A benevolent stranger had gifted Luca and his family courtside seats, where they were able to meet players from his hometown Pistons and Edwards himself!

Luca gave Edwards an orange wristband that read “Love Like Luca”, and Ant told him he’d wear it on his left hand for the rest of his career! Since then, Ant has made good on his word and worn the band in each game since.

Ant lost his mother and grandmother to cancer in 2015, so to see him channel his own grief in a positive way to improve another person’s life is really beautiful. ❤️

Signing Off

We gotta head out now, but we’ll be right back tomorrow with our regularly scheduled programing! See ya then. 🫡 

-Conor Geelan