Derrick Rose dropped the most unlikely 50-point game of the NBA season, then gave a tearful interview afterward

Fox Sports North/NBA

• Derrick Rose exploded for a career-high 50 points to help the Minnesota Timberwolves beat the Utah Jazz on Wednesday.
• After the game, Rose was emotional, alluding to the difficult path he's taken in recent years to stay in the NBA.
• Rose admitted in a recent interview that he nearly fell out of the league, making his performance on Wednesday all the more unlikely.

Minnesota Timberwolves guard Derrick Rose shocked the NBA world by exploding for a career-high 50 points to help his short-handed team beat the Utah Jazz.

The performance came with the Wolves playing without Jimmy Butler and starting guard Jeff Teague, thrusting Rose, who had been playing a reserve role, into the spotlight.

Rose, who is playing on a one-year minimum contract with the Wolves, got hot, particularly in the fourth quarter, as he carried the Wolves down the stretch with 15 points in the final frame.

Rose looked like the vintage player who became the league's youngest MVP at 23, rocketing to the basket for a variety of tough finishes and even knocking down outside jumpers, never a strong point in his game.

Rose suffered a slew of knee injuries during his years when he was a perennial All-Star with the Chicago Bulls, then was traded to the New York Knicks in 2016 while he went through a civil rape trial (he was found not liable). He ended the season with another knee injury.

Rose told The Athletic's Shams Charania that he didn't have any contract offers going into the 2017-18 season before LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers called him, offering a deal. Rose took the contract, but had an up-and-down year that included an extended absence away from the team to evaluate his future. He was eventually traded to the Utah Jazz, who cut him, then signed with the Wolves, where he provided some good minutes for former Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau. He re-signed with the team this past summer.

All of which is to say, Rose's NBA career seemed very much in doubt in recent years. After a stunning breakthrough game on Wednesday, Rose was emotional.

When the final buzzer sounded, his teammates mobbed him, as Rose fought back tears.

Then, during his postgame interview, Rose got choked up, saying he had "worked his ass off" to keep his career alive.

After the game, Thibodeau alluded to Rose's tough path back, saying it was the first summer in five years that Rose didn't have to go through rehab. 

The NBA has already seen four 50-point games in less than a month. But at the onset of the season, few could have predicted that Rose, who was nearly out of the league at various points in recent years, would be a candidate to go for the rare achievement in the NBA.