Yeah, they are terrible owners. But they did not tell Thibs to keep D. Rose in. That was Thibs doing what Thibs has always done, and what he continued to do after he left the Bulls.
By the way, Derrick Rose still ended up having an above average career even for the #1 pick in the draft. It wasn't what it could have been. Clearly he was on a whole different kind of trajectory before the injury. But his career hardly "died" because he got drafted by the Bulls.
Plus if all you have is 2 anecdotes from 10-20 years ago, I can match those:
Jimmy Butler - 2011 Draft, #30 - Definitely did not have his career ruined by being drafted by the Bulls. In fact, had a much better career than you'd anticiapte given his draft slot. 6x All-Star (3 of those were with the Bulls), 5x All-NBA, 5x All-Defense.
Tony Snell - 2013, #20 - Not a superstar, but for the #20 pick, 8 season and 600 games played is a great career. Look at the chart below. A lot of lottery picks don't get that.
James Johnson - 2009, #16 - Dude played 16 NBA seasons. Career definitely did not "die."
Bobby Portis - 2015, #22 - 11 years, 721 games, and still going strong. Good NBA career for a late first round pick.
Taj Gibson - 2009, #26 - Dude is 40 years old, and still in the league. Has played in over 1,000 NBA games, over 17 seasons, with career earnings of approximately $95 million. Not a bad career for a late 1st round pick!
Wendell Carter - 2018 Draft #7 - 461 games including 423 starts over 8 seasons, still going strong (played 78 games this season, starting every one) well on his way to outplaiying the below chart.
Coby White- 2019 Draft #7 - 472 games, 251 starts over 7 seasons, still going strong and at 25 will very likely out-do the average career length on the below chart.
And I mean, lest we forget, our man Ayo. Getting drafted by the Bulls probably ended up with him having more opportunity than other possible landing spots, and that has been key to him carving out what looks like it will be a very good NBA career even though the odds were stacked against him as a second round draft pick.
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