In the spirit of Valentine’s Day, I’d like to write about the most common gifts given on this romantic “holiday.”

Chocolate, jewelry, stuffed animals and flowers would probably top anyone’s list of “must gives” (especially for the guy attempting to crawl out of the doghouse).

But one flower in particular was gifted this past Sunday that will actually keep on giving for Chicagoans.

No, it’s not a plastic flower. I’m talking about a special rose, Derrick Rose, actually.

Did you really think a sports junkie like me could write an entire column on a flower?

Anyways, this past Sunday, the Chicago Bulls organization finally sucked in a breath of fresh air after their fans had rightfully summoned them to the doghouse following 12 years of All Star-less basketball.

Thankfully, two summers ago, the Bulls found themselves with the first pick in the NBA draft and Rose subsequently fell in their laps.

Now, just in his second year, Rose awarded the resilient Bulls fans by becoming the first Chicago All Star since MJ.

Although Sunday’s all-star game lacked any entertainment value, it was still a sight for sore eyes to see a Bull don the Eastern Conference All-Star jersey.

I guess we were spoiled when the Bulls went through a dominant decade, winning six NBA championships in the ‘90s and boasting an All Star almost every year. But, you would think that one or two Bulls would have found their way to the somewhat meaningful All-Star game in the aftermath of the dynasty years.

Instead, we had to go through a hellish rebuilding era that liked the names of Marcus Fizer (bust), Eddie Robinson (bust #2), Dalibor Bagaric (useless ogre), Ben Wallace (bust #3) and Jake Voskuhl (who?).

That’s a pretty good starting five, right? I didn’t think so, either.

But, that’s all in the past. We now have a go-to guy that has
respect in the league and has improved through every obstacle that has come his way.

One play in particular this season has proven to me that Rose is a once-in-a-lifetime player that has been gift-wrapped with a label reading, “To: Chicago Bulls’ Fans, Love: The Basketball Gods.”

It came against the Phoenix Suns a few weeks ago. It’s a play that Goran Dragic would undoubtedly like to forget.

Midway through the fourth quarter of a tight game between the Bulls and Suns, Rose brought in a pass from Tyrus Thomas and tomahawk dunked over Dragic, posterizing the Suns’ guard.

What made this dunk different for me than any of Rose’s other jams may have been a few things.

Maybe it was that it was the NBA.com dunk of the night. Or maybe it was that Rose kept soaring higher and seemed to bump his head on the bottom of the backboard after he had flushed the ball through the hoop.

Those are both pretty cool, but the main reason this dunk towers above the rest was the emotion that Rose showed afterwards.

After embarrassing Dragic, Rose took a loop out of bounds by the Suns’ bench and let out some seldom-seen emotion. The Chicago native is usually a bit reserved, but a dunk like that got his adrenaline pumping.

Revealing emotion or not, Rose has played remarkable thus far in his career. But, seeing him pumped up like that just reassured me that he wants to take this team to the next level.

If he could come through and say, gift-wrap a championship to us Bulls fans, this city would never crave any chocolate or ordinary flowers again.

Either way, we’ve got our Rose.