John Paxson won three championships with Michael Jordan. He drafted Derrick Rose.

The former Bulls sharpshooter and current executive vice president agreed Rose is the most important figure in franchise history since Jordan retired for the second time in 1998, ending the dynasty and scattering other Hall of Famers such as Scottie Pippen and Phil Jackson elsewhere.

“Given where we were at as a franchise and the odds of us getting that pick and the timing of it all with him being in that draft, I think he absolutely is,” Paxson said of Rose. “It's just unfortunate that he got sidetracked by that knee injury. For all of us, we look back at that and remember we had such momentum getting to the conference finals again. You always ask yourself what could've been.”

Rose and Joakim Noah return to the United Center on Friday with the Knicks, a night that will be filled with intense emotion, trips down memory lane and two franchises drastically altered when the Bulls decided to trade Rose in June. The Bulls have planned video tributes to both players.

“He moved on. He loves Chicago and there are no hard feelings,” said B.J. Armstrong, the former Bulls player and executive who is Rose's longtime agent. “He looks at this as a new challenge for him. It's the first time he has had to deal with a trade, with moving to a new city with new teammates and a new coach. He has great memories of his time with the Bulls but is excited about what's next.”

Indeed, Rose told reporters this week he has no hard feelings about the trade, which did surprise him but also rejuvenated the former No. 1 overall pick from 2008. The Bulls cashed in 1.7 percent odds in the draft lottery to select the homegrown product, whose seemingly too-good-to-be-true ascension from rookie of the year to youngest most valuable player in NBA history became balanced by a complicated fall from grace after his April 2012 left ACL tear.

Two torn right menisci and surgeries followed, polarizing a fan base that once strictly showered Rose with love.

“You had hope that you were on the cusp of something great that was sustainable,” Paxson said of the 2010-12-era Bulls. “We had good young players. Derrick was MVP of the league, a top-five player. We had no reason to think he wasn't going to be that way a long time. In this business, you need stars to have sustainable success.

“And we always felt bad for him and his injuries. We watched what he went through to get himself back on the court. Those are always admirable things because they're behind the scenes, what guys have to do to get themselves back to playing. I know I'm personally happy that his body is feeling good and he's playing and he should have a long career.”

That's why Paxson said there should be no doubt what Friday's fan reaction to Rose should be.

“C'mon, he should be received warmly,” Paxson said. “Injuries are part of the game. You can't do anything about that. In my mind, he didn't disappoint or let anybody down by any means. I would expect our fans to be classy and receive him the way they should.”

His former teammates agreed, and feel the same applies to Noah.

“They've done so much for this organization and even more than that, they've done so much for the community in Chicago,” Jimmy Butler said.

Noah, who signed with the Knicks in free agency in large part because Rose landed there, left town still as a fan favorite. He never experienced the polarizing reaction Rose did.

Fans loved Noah for his spirit and competitiveness, and it will be intriguing to see how much those traits are on display after Knicks coach Jeff Hornacek played him in limited minutes in Wednesday's loss to the Rockets. Noah joked in the offseason that he might be too overhyped for his first meeting against the team that drafted him ninth overall in 2007.

“It's going to be a business-type of game. I'm over here, they're over there,” Taj Gibson said. “We had a lot of fun. The city was ecstatic. Our team was ecstatic. We had a lot of great battles, a lot of emotion.

“The crowd should give them a good standing ovation. They gave Chicago a lot of blood, sweat and tears.”

Noah severely sprained his left ankle two games after Rose tore his ACL, sending the top-seeded Bulls to a stunning first-round exit to the 76ers in 2012. Dwyane Wade thought for sure the Bulls were headed to a rematch of the 2011 Eastern Conference finals with his Heat.

“We were like, ‘Man, we're going to be competing against this team every year,' ” Wade said. “And then D-Rose's injury happened and it shook things up for this organization and Indiana became our rivalry. We had so much respect for how hard those guys (on the Bulls) played, how tough they were and how talented they were. We were lucky to beat them 4-1 in the (2011) Eastern Conference. Those were close games that could go either way.”

Franchise directions can go either way too. The Bulls ultimately chose to move on from Rose, an unthinkable notion before that fateful April 28, 2012, afternoon.

Now, he and Noah will be back at the United Center, back where it all began.

“It was very difficult to move somebody like Derrick, especially when you have a Chicago kid who came in and was rookie of the year and an MVP and helped us win a lot of games,” general manager Gar Forman said. “You have to admire how he fought through everything and how he came to work every day. We wish him nothing but the best.”

kcjohnson@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @kcjhoop