LINCOLNSHIRE, Ill. — Derrick Rose officially became the NBA’s youngest MVP on Tuesday and joined Michael Jordan as the only Bulls to win the award.
Rose has a long way to go before he catches Jordan, who won five MVPs and led the way to two championship three- peats, but he sure is off to a good start.
“I’m not even touching that man right there,” Rose said of Jordan. “I’m far away from him. If anything, it would be great to be close to him.”
In his third year, Rose led the Bulls to their best season (62-20) since the championship era. The 22-year-old guard totaled 1,182 points and 113 first-place votes from a panel of media voters, supplanting Wes Unseld as the youngest to win the award with a runaway win. Unseld turned 23 only nine days before he won the MVP award in 1969. Orlando’s Dwight Howard (643 points) finished second, followed by Miami’s LeBron James, the Lakers’ Kobe Bryant and Oklahoma City’s Kevin Durant.
