DEERFIELD, Ill. -- Other than wishing him good health, most Chicago Bulls players were stumped when asked what they would get Derrick Rose for his 24th birthday, which the star guard celebrated on Thursday.

“I made the rookies sing,” Kirk Hinrich joked after practice. “I hope that’s enough.”

After the basketballs were picked up at the end of practice “Happy Birthday” could be heard throughout the Berto Center. But just a few minutes later Rose was back rehabbing, unavailable to discuss his big day.

“We should make him go (rehab) twice,” coach Tom Thibodeau said of a birthday gift.

Rose isn’t going home completely empty-handed though.

“I got him an iPhone already,” new Bull Nate Robinson said. “The iPhone 5.”


Why the new phone?

“He’s 24,” Robinson said. “He’s still young. I want to make sure he’s cool.”

Carlos Boozer might be echoing every Bulls fan when he added:

“I just wished him to keep getting healthy, keep getting better so we can have him in the second half. That’s the gift right there.”

Rose has never been a flashy guy so buying for him is extra difficult.

“We’re just going to go out and celebrate and have a good time,” Taj Gibson said. “With him it’s the smallest things that matter. He’s a simple type of guy so we’ll have to talk about what we’re going to get him.”

For now, the new iPhone and the rookie rendition of “Happy Birthday” will have to do.

“They have to practice their vocals because they’re going to do a lot of singing this year,” Robinson said of the rookies.