WASHINGTON (AFP) — American basketball player Derrick Rose, the youngest ever National Basketball Association (NBA) star to win the Most Valuable Player (MVP) award, announced his retirement on Thursday after 16 seasons.

The 35-year-old former Chicago Bulls and New York Knicks point guard posted a photo of himself on Instagram sitting in front of a chess set and holding a newspaper with a love letter to basketball.

In the social media message posted, Rose said basketball had been his “first love.”

“You introduced me to new places and cultures that a kid from Chicago could have never imagined. You taught me that every loss was a lesson and every win was a reason to be grateful,” he wrote.

“You gave me a gift, our time together, one that I will cherish for the rest of my days. You told me it’s okay to say goodbye, reassuring me that you’ll always be a part of me, no matter where life takes me.”

Rose also took out full-page advertisements in all the cities where he had played for the local team — Chicago, New York, Detroit, Cleveland, Minneapolis and Memphis — to thank each group of fans.

The Memphis Grizzlies had this week granted Rose’s request to let him out of the final year of his two-year contract.

The No. 1 overall pick in the 2008 NBA draft, Rose spent the first half of his career in the league with his hometown club, the Chicago Bulls.

He won the 2008-09 Rookie of the Year and was an All-Star the next three seasons.

The 6-foot-2 guard became the youngest MVP in NBA history, aged 22 years, in 2010-11, when he averaged 25.0 points and 7.7 assists per game as the Bulls made a run to the Eastern Conference finals.

But his career was thrown off course after tearing his ACL during the first round of the 2012 playoffs. He missed the entire next season and was limited to only 10 games in 2013-14.

His eight-year run with the Bulls ended when he was traded to the New York Knicks during the 2016 off-season.