Lakers star LeBron James shouts out Derrick Rose when recalling favorite moment vs. Bulls

LeBron James took some time to reflect on his rivalry with Derrick Rose and the Bulls from nearly a decade ago

Before signing with the Los Angeles Lakers in 2018, LeBron James spent the first fifteen years of his career in the Eastern Conference for the first fifteen years of his illustrious career, which means LeBron is plenty familiar with the Chicago Bulls. Not only did LeBron spend eleven of those fifteen seasons in the Central Division as a member of the Cleveland Cavaliers, playing the Bulls four times a year in the regular season, but he's also gone up against Chicago four times in the postseason.

Aside from Derrick Rose's ACL, it's common to hear “LeBron James” cited as the second-most responsible party for why the Bulls never made an NBA Finals appearance during the Derrick Rose era. All four times LeBron James has faced Chicago in the NBA Playoffs — twice with Cleveland and twice with Miami — it's been LeBron's squad that has emerged victorious. All these years later, now coming up on nine since he's last played against the Bulls in the postseason, the NBA's all-time leading scorer looks back on those high stakes matchups fondly.

"The battles that I had against [Derrick Rose], Joakim [Noah] and Taj [Gibson]… the one year when I was able to hit the game winner… by their bench."

LeBron James was asked about his favorite moment playing against the Chicago Bulls.

(via @rytay_)pic.twitter.com/3yumYtiYkw

— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) December 21, 2023

The game-winner LeBron James referenced following the Lakers loss to the Bulls came in Game 4 of the 2015 Eastern Conference semi-finals. When facing a 2-1 series deficit, LeBron James hit a game-winning jumper at the buzzer in Chicago over Jimmy Butler right in front of the Bulls bench. Interestingly, this King James game-winner came just two days after Derrick Rose hit a three-pointer at the buzzer to give Chicago that 2-1 series lead, making this the only series in NBA Playoff history with back-to-back games that ended with game-winning shots as time expired. The Cavaliers would go on to win the series 4-2.

We're at the point now where LeBron's computer brain has enough data and enough built-up on-court success that he would be able to speak about high-profile matchups from his past versus any team in the NBA. That's just what happens when arguably the game's greatest player has been around for 21 seasons.