Derrick Rose had already established himself as the favorite to win the Rookie of the Year award when the 2009 NBA playoffs opened on April 18 in Boston.
The defending champion Celtics were expected to make short work of the Bulls, who earned the No. 7 seed with a 41-41 record under first year head coach Vinny Del Negro.
While the game was nationally televised, Kendall Gill, Stacey King and I huddled up in one of our station’s conference rooms to watch the playoff opener and prepare for our postgame coverage on what was then Comcast SportsNet.