The Mis-Education of Noah Baldwin (2027 - ???)

[djp73]

Damn. 81-1. as a Knicks fan from back in the day this makes me happy. Historic. Wonder what's next for the Baldwin clan?

[Agent]

Congrats on winning the chip

[The JZA]

The Patrick Ewing curse finally lifted!!

[chosenone58]

Damn. 81-1. as a Knicks fan from back in the day this makes me happy. Historic. Wonder what's next for the Baldwin clan?

Only time will tell. Got a few offseason updates. Expecting the league to shift again like when he retired in 2020. The championship changed hands every year until the Sixers got in there and won three straight from 2023-2025.

Congrats on winning the chip

You know we had to send Unc off the right way. Preparing for an epic recap of this legendary career before we get into next season.

The Patrick Ewing curse finally lifted!!

[kibaxx7]

Congrats, bud. I'm always leaning towards a Knicks story and I might do it next year, this city deserves some happiness.

[The JZA]

Congrats, bud. I'm always leaning towards a Knicks story and I might do it next year, this city deserves some happiness.

Wanna give the city happiness, then get Mayor Adams out of office

[chosenone58]

Congrats, bud. I'm always leaning towards a Knicks story and I might do it next year, this city deserves some happiness.

Appreciate it. While the Knicks aren't my favorite team, it was definitely a team I enjoyed watching. They had some great players. Hated that they could never get over the hump.

[chosenone58]

CROSSOVER MAGAZINE EXCLUSIVE!
DEREK BALDWIN: THE KING OF THE COURT

The final buzzer has just sounded in Madison Square Garden and the confetti is coming from the ceiling. Most of the Denver Nuggets have quickly vacated the floor, but Derek Baldwin was able to speak with a few players, namely Kiyan Anthony and Kenyon Martin Jr.

“I definitely had to speak with those guys. I played against both of their fathers early in my career. I watched them come up, so it hits different. I think they’ll be back.”

Derek Baldwin is currently living a dream that few players even think about. He’s retiring, again, as a champion.

“I don’t think I could have dreamed up a better ending,” said a slightly teary-eyed Derek Baldwin. He would later tell everyone that it was from the champagne seeping through his goggles.

After playing for seven years in the NBA, Baldwin retired after winning gold in the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo. He announced his retirement on national television during an interview after the gold medal game.

“This is definitely different,” he said. “I mean, I had won a championship, but just being able to announce it and being able to celebrate with fans and players alike along the way, it was a very cool and very humbling experience.”

Players were trying to get every piece of signed memorabilia that they could from Baldwin. From jerseys to sneakers, everybody wanted something with Derek’s name on it.

“The guy is a legend,” said Minnesota’s Anthony Edwards. “He took over the league during my high school years. Like once Kobe retired, Derek was the man to watch. Then he retired the year I got drafted and I thought I missed my chance, so when he came back, I was ready to face off against him.”

Several players in that 2020 Draft class and beyond from Tyrese Halliburton to Cole Anthony to Cade Cunningham to Jalen Green, echoed Edwards’ sentiments.

“But when he came back, he gave us that work,” commented Green. “It looked like time hadn’t affected him at all.”

Despite returning to the NBA hardwood just a few weeks after his 38th birthday, it didn’t take long for Baldwin to get re-acclimated to the game.

12 seasons, 11 championships, three-time MVP, seven time NBA Finals MVP, nine All-Star Selections… his profile reads like that of an NBA 2K MyCareer god.

Before being drafted by the Chicago Bulls in 2013, he played for three years in Spain after graduating from Nicholls State University. He played one season with Menorca and his last two seasons with FCB Regal.

“It was bittersweet. We lost the Spanish Cup that season, but my agent, Oliver Tate, came bearing good news. I was being invited to a rookie showcase that was taking place right before the NBA Draft that year. It was like the Combine Scrimmage before the Combine Scrimmage. I had given myself five years to get to the league before I called it quits, I did it in three. So, I packed up and came back stateside. Three weeks and twenty picks later, I was headed to Chicago.”

[chosenone58]

THE DARK HORSE ARRIVES IN CHICAGO (2013-2016)

He came into the 2013 NBA Draft as the “dark horse”, a 25 year old rookie who spent the last three years of his life playing pro ball in Spain. Nobody really knew much about Derek Baldwin. Being a 25 year old rookie was a bad thing and a good thing depending on who you asked. On one hand, teams felt like he wouldn’t have much of a peak and that he may have been set in his ways of doing things. They didn’t think he would be too willing to learn. But on the other hand, there was a maturity about him that drew the attention of Bulls GM Gar Forman.

“We didn’t want to have to constantly check on him and wait for him to adapt to this phase in his life. A lot of kids come in at 18 and 19 years old and they’ve been sheltered in college and now they’re having money thrown at them and are making real world decisions. Derek seemed to be leveled headed and that’s what we loved the most. The three point shot would come later.”

“I grew up in the Jordan Era so playing for Chicago was like a dream come true,” said Baldwin. “I just wanted to make the city proud and make Jordan proud too.”

He scored six points in his rookie debut in loss to the Miami Heat. It was a grind in the beginning. He was averaging about 6 points a game in his first 18 games. An overtime loss to the New York Knicks in which Derrick Rose scored 42 points seemed to be the turning point for Derek Baldwin.

“I was really pissed that I missed that jumper at the buzzer. We could have had a win and gone on home. It really shouldn’t have even come to that. That was a win on my calendar, until it wasn’t. And when the reporters asked about it, I just kind of went off.”

Baldwin took accountability for his play, finishing with 9 points, 2 rebounds and 4 assists, and asked his teammates to do the same. He felt they weren’t doing enough to backup Derrick Rose and it showed. It was a moment where he was going to have to put up or shut up. And he definitely put up. Two nights later, he scored a then career high 22 points in a win against Toronto and he was only getting started.

“He was really putting the work in,” said Derrick Rose. “He would call me and we would go over film. He was really becoming an integral part of the team. He wanted to learn more, he wanted to get better. And it was really exciting to be around that. It felt like change was really coming to Chicago.”

Baldwin, Rose, and Carlos Boozer had been Chicago’s top scorers on a consistent basis over those months since the Knicks loss, so Baldwin took it upon himself to dub them the Perfect 10.

“Everybody kept going on about Big Three. Our jersey numbers equaled 10.”

As he got more comfortable with his role on the team, his game started to open up. He could be seen having fun on the sidelines with his teammates as well with pregame celebrations and lots of towel waving while resting. The Bulls found themselves in fourth place in the Eastern Conference and Baldwin was named Rookie of the Month for January and February before being mentioned on the shortlist of Rookie of the Year candidates.

“I was shocked. I think I was the lowest picked player on that list. Our rookie class was deep. You got Trey Burke, Nerlens Noel, Ben McLemore, Michael Carter-Williams, CJ McCollum, Victor Oladipo, all those guys. These were guys that had been followed and scouted their entire college careers, I just kind of dropped out of nowhere.”

Burke was named Rookie of the Year, but Baldwin did make the All-Rookie First Team.

Baldwin and the Bulls had their eyes on something bigger than individual awards that year. The NBA Playoffs were soon underway and while they moved past the Pistons in five games, Indiana took them to seven games before they found themselves in the Eastern Conference Finals staring down their rival, the Miami Heat.

“That was a big series for us. The guys wanted that. Miami had eliminated them in the Eastern Conference Finals the year before. The energy was just different. It was probably the most pressure I had ever felt in my career and it wasn’t even the Finals.”

The Heat had their Big Three of LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh, but Chicago seemed to have found their missing piece in Derek Baldwin. The rookie was averaging 20 points per game in the playoffs.

“He had finally hit his stride and what better time than the playoffs,” said Bulls’ center Joakim Noah.

After a surprising sweep of Miami, it was time to face Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and the Oklahoma City Thunder. In one of the most exciting NBA Finals fans had seen in a while, Chicago was down 3-1 before Baldwin and Rose combined for 52 points to force Game 6. The duo combined for 40 in Game 6, and 45 in Game 7 to take the win on the road.

“Out of all the Finals that I’ve played in, I can still look back and say that one was the most intense. Down 3-1, Game 7 on the road? This is what it’s all about.”

The Chicago Bulls returned with a renewed focus and a target on their backs. The plan was to repeat like the Bulls in 1997. Baldwin’s numbers had increased across the board. He averaged 20 points per game that season and Chicago finished with the second best record in the league. They were on track to accomplish what they set out to do.

“What’s the saying about the best laid plans,” asked Baldwin. “When you achieve success like that early in your career, anything else is a bust. And my second season was definitely that.”

Things didn’t turn out quite like they hoped. Taj Gibson suffered a torn meniscus early in the season, before he was traded away to Brooklyn in January along with Marquis Teague in exchange for D.J. Augustin and Tornike Shengelia. That trade saw Chicago’s post game suffer greatly without another big body to pay alongside Boozer and Noah. That loss spelled Chicago’s doom in the second round of the playoffs where they loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers in six games. Cleveland’s wins were no more than 5 points.

“Cleveland was probably one of our tougher opponents that entire season. It was always a back and forth with them. Kyrie was coming into his own leading that team and it showed. We still should have won that series. We were not prepared for [Andrew] Bynum.”

More changes came in Chicago as Carlos Boozer decided to sign with the Miami Heat during free agency, meaning the Bulls would be playing small ball this season as Luol Deng was moved to the power forward position. Because of that, Derek’s third season in Chicago was without a doubt his best.

“I obsessed about losing to Cleveland all summer. No lie. That wasn’t happening again. I had to look at other ways to make myself a factor for the team.”

He scored 33 points in the Bulls season opener against Philadelphia and kept that energy throughout the season. In January, he scored a career high 56 points in a win against the Oklahoma City Thunder, scored 40 points against Kobe Bryant and the San Antonio Spurs, was named to his first All-Star Game, won his first MVP award averaging 27.3 points, 5.8 rebounds, and 3.7 assists per game.

Chicago was the top seed in the East and their focus was the Finals. The swept the Pistons in 4 games, blew past the Raptors in 5 games before meeting up with the Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference Finals. Baldwin completely dominated that series, scoring 49 and 43 points in Games 4 and 5 respectively.

“He definitely blacked out that series,” said Joakim Noah. “He wanted to go through Cleveland on the way to the Finals.”

They found themselves facing the New Orleans Pelicans in the Finals, where after a 43 point performance by Baldwin in Game 5 at the United Center saw the Chicago Bulls crowned champions for the second time in 3 years. They finished the 2016 NBA Playoffs with a record of 16-3.

When asked about the secret to their success that season, Baldwin said, “There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work and learning from failure. I learned a lot from losing to the Cavs the season before.”

The summer after the Bulls’ second championship was an interesting one. A tweet by Kyrie Irving midseason about wanting to play with Baldwin as opposed to playing against him raised a few eyebrows.

“Yeah, that was something,” said Derek. “And while the situation in Chicago wasn’t ideal. It wasn’t terrible. But I felt like I was pushing myself every night.”

Derek Baldwin had accomplished a lot both for the team and as an individual in his three short years in the NBA. He was a two time champion and Finals MVP, he was NBA’s scoring leader for the 2015-16 season, made his first All-Star appearance and was the league’s reigning MVP. But when it came time to sign an extension with Bulls, he declined.

“And it wasn’t that I declined, there was some negotiation. I was not going to be caught up in a Scottie Pippen situation.”

He made it very clear that it wasn’t just about the money.

“Salary aside, which was important, but I wanted some roster improvements. And I don’t think that I was being unreasonable, but the team wasn’t willing to meet me in the middle on. I wanted more help for Joakim.”

The Bulls signed Al Jefferson, but then came the offer and Derek thought he was being lowballed.

“I had accomplished too much for what they were offering, not to mention they had Brandon Jennings on the hook as well. So, it was like they were preparing for my departure. They wanted to sign me to a long term deal, at about $15M a year, but wouldn’t agree to a player option, so at that point, I declined.”

[djp73]

Damn definitely coming back to read all that. GOAT stuff.