Bill Whittington

You know, it was emotional.

It was authentic.

And it really let you into like what he was feeling.

I felt like in the moment, I remember this is a guy who had actually seen the banner that the day before, um,

And he got emotional even talking about it before the actual ceremony.

And still, when it was time, when the horn went final on the Celtics game and it was time for him to do his thing, he and his former teammates, I think Casey Johnson said 25 of them showed up.

That's wild.

That's a lot of love.

I found it to be highly appropriate that on a night in which a man whose last name is Rose was set to get his flowers, he ended up giving out some bouquets with his time on the mic.

And that's when it became clear how we got here.

You know, like how, how this Rose was able to grow in such a manner that

Through some thorny times, it sounds like.

I mean, just the way he framed it, pictured it, getting to not only becoming a national star, Simeon Memphis, and then, of course, back home with the Bulls.

It's a fairy tale.

Felt like a whole lot of people were crying watching that.

I'm going to keep this fairly simple.

And I want to emphasize that this decision was made a long time ago.

The decision was actually made before my illness, which has certainly hastened in some ways the decision.

It's made it a very, very difficult year for me.

And any time I have to be away from as much work as I've had to do this year, it makes me sad.