NBA player Derrick Rose decided to write his life story in I’ll show you. His story is a story of rising to the top, losing everything, revival and acceptance of who you are.
Plot
In chapters 1-4 he goes over a wide range of topics. He starts off talking about why he decided to name his book I’ll show you. Rose gets into his childhood, discussing how he wanted to be the greatest and some crazy things that happened. He also goes into great detail how he felt before, during and after his first ACL injury, an injury which Rose claims changed him for the better.
In chapters 5-9 he talks about his life story. First, we find out how Rose got the nickname “Pooh.” We see him grow from a middle school student who was just starting to realize his basketball talent to the first pick in the NBA draft. He goes into great detail about how good his life was during his MVP season in 2010-2011. Although he talked about his first ACL injury earlier he goes into greater detail about how it affected him emotionally and how tough his rehab process was. According to Rose the toughest part was maintaining his privacy while still keeping fan in the know.
In chapters 10-14 he talks about the roller coaster that’s been the past few years of his life. From team USA to getting traded from his hometown team to signing a minimum contract to getting traded and released and finding new life on the Timberwolves. He suffered 6 season ending or altering from 2012 to 2018. With all these injuries and set backs, many people would have given up. Rose, however never gave up on himself and is still a productive player in the league to this day. Rose’s story doesn’t end on the last page, which is how it’s suppose to be.
This book does a lot right. Rose does a great job of telling his life story. One thing I really liked about this book is how he writes. He writes like he’s having a normal conversation with you. Reading this book didn’t even feel like reading it felt more like talking to Rose. It’s the words he uses and his overall style of writing that creates this feeling. I feel like more people should write like this in their biographies in the future. It makes reading it all the more enjoyable.
Review
Nothing is perfect, so I must talk about flaws in this book. One thing I didn’t like is how sometimes he would go off topic and skip ahead of going back in the story. One example is talking about his time with the Knicks (2017) while talking about his ACL injury (2012). It makes the book feel a bit unorganized. He was most likely trying to make it feel like a conversation, and conversation often go off topic but I personally didn’t like it. I would have preferred if Rose had kept the story in order. It’s really just a nit-pick though.
Here’s my honest opinion on this book, it is really, really good. I would recommend anyone to read it, not just athletes. Everyone will go through the struggle of set backs and figuring out who you truly are. Rose tells you exactly how you should go through these problems which can apply to everyone, just in different ways. Beyond that it’s just written really well. Rose is a NBA player, not an author, but with how well he writes he should considering being an author in his post NBA life. In conclusion, no matter who you are I’d pick up a copy of I’ll show you.
