Tag: Jalen Rose

Michigan’s Fab Five reunited for the first time since their playing days and fans absolutely loved it

Michigan was never going to lose with the Fab Five in the building.

It is not often you see former Michigan stars Juwan Howard, Jalen Rose, Chris Webber, Jimmy King and Ray Jackson in the same room.

After years apart from one another, the former college basketball stars reunited on Martin Luther King Day at the Crisler Center in Ann Arbor. But with Howard coaching for Michigan and his four other former teammates on the sidelines, the group reunited for a conference victory over rival Ohio State.

The historic class, four of whom were McDonald’s All-Americans in high school, was honored for their contribution to the program and to the sport.

It was particularly heartwarming to see Webber and Rose reunited after the two former NBA players long had an estranged relationship with each other (via 247 Sports):

“Everybody had their own relationship. It’s no secret Jalen and I had to come together, and we have. Much earlier — it’s not about just today. It had to happen naturally,” Webber said.

“We both had to be in a place of reconciliation, have to be in a place of forgiveness. I can’t speak for Jalen, but that’s where I was. Obviously he was there too. It’s really cool to be here but it’s better to be here as family.”

Webber added that he would have waited “100 years” for a reunion if that was how long it took. He has given motivational speeches to Michigan’s team since Howard took over as head coach.

Rose, who was a longtime ESPN and ABC analyst after his professional playing career, joined FOX’s broadcast to discuss the occasion.

While the reunion was understated and quiet, it was great to see these five standouts in the same building yet again.

Here is how fans reacted when they saw the legendary group together for the first time since the 1990s:

Magic Johnson says he cried all summer after losing in 1984 NBA Finals

Lakers great Magic Johnson says he cried for three months after his 1984 NBA Finals loss to Larry Bird’s Celtics, but it made him stronger.

The 1983-84 season was a turning point for the Los Angeles Lakers and the NBA as a whole. After the Lakers had won two world championships in 1980 and 1982 against the Philadelphia 76ers, they took on the hated Boston Celtics for the 1984 title, and the Showtime era started to get serious.

The 1984 finals is seen as the series that started to make the NBA into what it has been in modern times. The Lakers seemed to have the upper hand over Larry Bird and company, but they blew late leads in Game 2 and Game 4, while the Celtics used roughhouse, playground tactics to take home the Larry O’Brien Trophy in seven games.

Magic Johnson was pinpointed as the culprit due to some miscues he had in crunch time. He went into a deep funk following the championship loss, and he told former NBA player Jalen Rose just how bad his depression was (h/t Lakers Daily).

“This was the first time I made critical mistakes for us to lose that championship,” Johnson said. “So I cried, Jalen, for three months, all summer I cried because I let my teammates down. I was the reason why we lost the championship. But the first thing I had to do, Jalen, was identify and say to myself, ‘I’m not as good as I thought I was.’”

Johnson also dropped some valuable self-help and personal development nuggets. He talked about doing what’s known as a “SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) Analysis” on himself in order to figure out exactly how he had to improve.

The Hall of Fame point guard said he would work out multiple times a day that summer in order to expand his game and get ready for the next season. As fortune would have it, the Lakers returned to the NBA Finals in 1985, and this time, they defeated the Celtics. For good measure, they would do so again in 1987 before becoming the first NBA team to repeat as world champs in 19 years the following season.

Self-help author Napoleon Hill once wrote, “Every adversity, every failure, every heartbreak, carries with it the seed of an equal or greater benefit.” It’s fair to say L.A.’s championship loss in 1984 brought it the seed that would grow into the brilliant flower of soon becoming arguably the greatest team in NBA history.

Celtics’ Grant Williams, Ricky Rubio, Jalen Rose join NBPA Foundation Board of Directors

The Boston Celtics forward will join retired NBAer and broadcaster Jalen Rose and veteran Cleveland Cavaliers floor general Ricky Rubio as new additions to the board.

Grant Williams has joined the National Basketball Players Association’s (NBPA) Foundation Board of Directors, according to a release by the player’s union. The Boston Celtics forward joins retired NBA player Jalen Rose and veteran Cleveland Cavaliers floor general Ricky Rubio as new additions to the board.

New Orleans Pelicans guard C.J. McCollum is the board president, and Tamika L. Tremaglio is the executive director. Others on the board are Golden State Warriors veteran swingman Andre Iguodala, ex-NBA Vice President for Player Development Chrysa Chin and Milwaukee Bucks big man Serge Ibaka.

“Ricky, Grant, and Jalen each bring unique experiences and perspectives, both on and off the court, which will undoubtedly enrich our board,” NBPA Foundation Executive Director Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said in the release.

“Their contributions to their communities demonstrate a commitment to positive change, aligning with our core mission. We are thrilled to have them join us in our pursuit of creating meaningful change worldwide.”

Listen to the “Celtics Lab” podcast on:

Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3zBKQY6

Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3GfUPFi

YouTube: https://bit.ly/3F9DvjQ

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Jalen Rose wants college athletes to have more freedom with endorsements

Could athletes receive a percentage of school sponsorship dollars?

Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) is not a new concept in sports. However, college athletes being able to monetize their own NIL is new.

Universities and third parties have been able to monetize the NIL of college athletes for decades. Now the athletes have more control over their own publicity rights. However, former professional and college athlete and current sports analyst, Jalen Rose, wants to see athletes gain even more freedom.

Currently, college athletes are bound not only by NCAA rules and state laws surrounding NIL but also by university and team policies. This limits the brand sponsors college athletes can obtain individually.

For example, LSU athletics has a sponsorship with Nike which limits the sponsors their athletes can have unless they receive a special dispensation to have a conflicting sponsor. LSU women’s basketball player Flau’jae Johnson is sponsored by PUMA Hoops, but she cannot wear their apparel during games. It was a unique deal because Nike could mostly likely not approved of the athlete having a competing brand partner, but they likely realized the optics of that sort of intervention on their part.

Rose wants college athletes to get a piece of the broader sponsorship pie. He wants them to be able to have more freedom in which sponsors they are allowed to partner with and to receive a percentage of monetary compensation from school sponsors.

Currently, there are others in the collegiate sports ecosystem who agree with Rose. A lawsuit, whose intention is to do just what Rose proposed, is currently making its way through the court system with a tentative trial date set for 2024. House v NCAA seeks to claim revenue-sharing compensation from the NCAA and its member schools to athletes along with taking away restrictions on athletes ability to be compensated for their NIL.

“Despite all these NIL deals, the NCAA is doing great. There’s been no harm for consumer interest or competitive balance. I think most people would say that the NCAA and its various sports are successful as they’ve ever been. They just had the highest-watched women’s tournament in history by far and probably the most competitive parity in the men’s tournament,” says Winston & Strawn co-executive chairman Jeffrey L. Kessler.

Jalen Rose wants Michigan to ‘immortalize’ the Fab Five

It’s time to get this done!

Going back to the early 1990s, Michigan basketball had one of the greatest teams ever orchestrated that became known as the ‘Fab Five’. The 1991 Wolverines’ recruiting class just may be the best class to ever walk thru the door at any university — ever.

The Wolverines started five freshmen in the 1991-92 season: Jalen Rose, Jimmy King, Ray Jackson, Chris Webber, and Juwan Howard. During both seasons all five players played together, Michigan reached the NCAA Championship game twice, but lost both times to Duke and North Carolina, respectively.

But because Webber took money from a booster, which was illegal, the Wolverines were forced to vacate both Final Four banners.

In today’s day and age, NIL (Name, Image, and Likeness) is a real thing and student-athletes are getting sponsorship deals for money, while other athletes are flat out getting paid from boosters at universities

Former Michigan basketball legend, Jalen Rose, was on the Draymond Green Show to discuss basketball, and the topic of the Fab Five was brought up. Green asked Rose what he thought about the banners still being down at Crisler Center since kids are getting paid — like Webber was back then — in today’s college world. Rose doesn’t care about the banners, but he wants to see Michigan do something to immortalize what the Fab Five has done.

“That’s a Michigan thing at that point, not an NCAA thing,” said Rose. “Because they can do it right now. For whatever reason, it just hasn’t happened. Now that Juwan (Howard) is leading the program, I have faith that it will happen. But to be honest, since we didn’t win it, I don’t really care about those banners. I feel like there should be one banner with all of our numbers on it. Like, retire our numbers. Or give us a statue or something — truly immortalize what we’ve done.”

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Jalen Rose says that the Brooklyn Nets ‘won’t win a championship’

Jalen Rose says the Nets won’t win a division, let alone a title, and also made the case that Jacque Vaughn’s time could be limited.

The Brooklyn Nets lost to the Philadelphia 76ers on Tuesday 115-106 in an embarrassing fashion. What made the loss pathetic was that the Nets lost to a Sixers team missing Joel Embiid, James Harden, and Tyrese Maxey while Tobias Harris was playing through a hip injury.

On ESPN’s “NBA Countdown”, Jalen Rose gave his take on what he thought of the Sixers beating the Nets and what the loss meant for the Nets long-term. Rose said that the Sixers enjoyed the victory because it gave them confidence that future matchups should go their way when they get Embiid, Harden, and Maxey back from their foot injuries.

Rose gave a matter-of-fact take on what the loss means for the Nets moving forward:

“This is what I took from it (the Nets loss), this squad can’t win a division, can’t win a conference, and won’t win a championship. This also told me this is not Jacque Vaughn’s job. They (The Nets) wanted to give the job to Ime Udoka and they didn’t for the reasons that we know. But, this cemented for me that this won’t be his (Vaughn) job long term.”

The Brooklyn Nets next play at the Indiana Pacers on Friday.

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Jalen Rose criticizes both Ben Simmons and Sixers for ugly divorce

ESPN’s Jalen Rose criticizes both Ben Simmons and the Philadelphia 76ers for the ugly divorce.

The way the relationship between Ben Simmons and the Philadelphia 76ers ended certainly was ugly. The events leading up to the divorce were ugly and everything was aired out in public as the two sides looked to find a resolution.

Eventually, they did as the Sixers sent Simmons to the Brooklyn Nets in the deal that brought James Harden to Philadelphia. On Thursday, Simmons finally opened up and he discussed not only passing up the dunk against the Atlanta Hawks in Game 7, but he also discussed his holdout from the team and the mental issues that were holding him back from competing.

ESPN’s Jalen Rose blamed both Simmons and the Sixers for the ugly divorce in the aftermath of the comments on “Jalen and Jacoby”:

Jack Nicklaus mocked Jalen Rose’s golf swing after so many whiffs at the Ally Challenge Celebrity Shootout

I feel that.

We’ve all had some bad days on the links. But generally, those bad days don’t play out in front of a crowd and television cameras.

Former NBA star and current analyst Jalen Rose was one of several big names to participate in the Ally Challenge Celebrity Shootout, which was held at the Warwick Hills Golf and Country Club in Rose’s home state of Michigan.

However, it wasn’t the homecoming Rose hoped for, and his performance was notable for all the wrong reasons. Wearing an Aidan Hutchinson Lions jersey, Rose failed to even make contact five times before Jack Nicklaus — one of the greatest golfers of all time who won a record 18 majors during his playing career — intervened.

“You see this thing here,” Nicklaus asked, pointing to the club head. “That’s what you hit the ball with.”

He then demonstrated a golf swing for Rose. Amazingly, the lesson seemed to work, as he hit the ball on his next attempt. Sort of.

Rose didn’t get any air on it, and it only went a few yards. But hey, it counts. That’ll play.

Don’t worry, Jalen. I’ve been there.

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Jalen Rose says Sixers made a mistake making Ben Simmons a point guard

ESPN’s Jalen Rose says the Philadelphia 76ers made a mistake when they made Ben Simmons their point guard.

For four seasons, Ben Simmons was the point guard of the Philadelphia 76ers. The 6-foot-10 standout out of LSU had the skills and the vision to be a floor leader, so the Sixers had him out there running their offense despite his lack of a jumper.

The results were encouraging. Simmons made three All-Star appearances and he made an All-NBA third team during his time in Philadelphia before his tenure went sour. He averaged 15.9 points, 8.1 rebounds, 7.7 assists and 1.7 steals, but he didn’t play at all in the 2021-22 season.

ESPN’s Jalen Rose believes the Sixers made a mistake making Simmons the point guard as it hurt his development:

First, it’s about health and he took a lot of slander for not playing in Philly and with the Nets, but as any athlete will tell you, you don’t just turn around and get back surgery. So clearly he was injured. So I want to know how did he even pass a physical, but now that he’s there, I believe he healthy he’s gonna give them what I consider a junk lineup up front. Philadelphia made a mistake in developing Ben Simmons as a point guard and here’s why. When you’re not attempting shots outside of the paint, it’s hard to have you at the top of the floor. So now that they have KD (Kevin Durant), he’s going to play quality minutes at the 4. Watch Ben Simmons be like on the baseline playing like a small ball 5, and in that case, he’s gonna have an opportunity to be a productive player. He’s not going to have to worry about shooting the ball. He’s not going to have to worry about being a big time scorer. He can be a defender, a playmaker, and a teammate and I think you’ll fit right in with Kyrie (Irving) and KD.

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No matter what the Sixers did with Simmons, a lot of his lack of development falls on his refusal to shoot a jumper and continue to grow as a player on the offensive end of the floor. Now that he’s in Brooklyn, maybe he will have an easier opportunity to grow on offense.

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Jalen Rose has Sixers legend Allen Iverson as top 5 ball-handler

Jalen Rose lists Philadelphia 76ers legend, Allen Iverson, as a top 5 ball-handler in the history of the game.

When it comes to ball-handling in the NBA, there are certain qualities one must have in order to be elite. They must have the speed and the quickness to shake defenders to get an open look at the basket.

They are maestros with the basketball manipulating their defenders into thinking they’re going one way before quickly snatching the ball back into a nasty crossover to the basket and leaving their defenders in the dust.

Philadelphia 76ers legend Allen Iverson is one of those maestros. He has taken many ankles in his NBA career, leaving defenders wondering what happened. The most famous crossover of Iverson’s career was the one he put on Michael Jordan when he began his career.

Former NBA star Jalen Rose, now with ESPN, was asked to put together his list of the top five ball-handlers, and Iverson appeared on the list at No. 4. He is joined by Isiah Thomas, Kyrie Irving, Stephen Curry and Jamal Crawford. Rose had a tough time putting together the list due to the immense talent in the history of the game.

Iverson has certainly made a huge impact on not only the Sixers but the NBA as a whole. The fact that he can still be brought up in debates such as this one is a testament to the work he put in on the floor during his long and successful career.

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