The legacy of the Fab Five

Finally had some time last night to watch ESPN Films two hour documentary on the "Fab Five" of michigan basketball and even though it was an interesting watch and a well done film,I still didn't change my opinion much of this heralded,but in the end,underachieving group.

Although the Fab Five only stayed together as a five man unit for two years with Chris Webber leaving for the pros after two years,Jalen Rose and Juwan Howard after their junior season and Jimmy King and Ray Jackson staying for the duration of their careers,they are well remembered.
But,what are they remembered for,really?
Long shorts,trash talk,big game losses and embarrassing outbursts when they lost games.
Toss in the hip-hop stuff and one can well make a case that the Fab Five were pretty influential-in a negative way.
Arguably they were the group that began to send college hoops down the road to being NBA lite as far as how their players conduct themselves on the court and they can take tons of blame for truly making college basketball more about Me than We.

Watching the film,it seems that Jalen Rose hasn't grown up a bit and still seems to think that he was a better player than he was,Jimmy King seems pretty normal,Ray Jackson came off as someone bitter about his post NBA career,Juwan Howard looks to have matured a bit through the years and Chris Webber didn't participate in the film.
Despite their two title game losses in the two year span of the entire group,they really underachieved in many ways.
In neither season,did they win the Big Ten title (regular season,there was no tournament then).
Perhaps,the true story behind the Fab Five was that these guys were not quite as good as the hype.
Chris Webber had an excellent NBA career,but was not a clutch performer and in my opinion was not a true player that you could build a team around.
Webber could have thrived as being the number two player on a team,but as a top guy,his flaws in the big game always came to the surface.
Juwan Howard is still in the league as a role player on the Miami Heat and was a very good player that earned the type of dough that great players earn.
Jalen Rose's career was pretty similar to Howard's before his career ended with knee problems,while Jimmy King played just one season in the league in addition to two games the following year to end his NBA stint and Ray Jackson didn't play in the league at all.
Talented players?Surely.
Worthy of the hype on the basketball floor? Perhaps,but they never won anything either.
No member of the Fab Five have played on an NBA Championship winner.



I am going to let the scandals involving Webber and Rose go by,because to me,if you dig deep enough you can find these types of issues at just about any top school in football and basketball.
I also will refrain from the racial aspect based on Jalen Rose's comments on the Duke basketball program as well and keep to the focus on the Fab Five legacy.
That legacy leaves one of self-promotion,marketing (that they saw little of the money from).selfishness and the damage done to the college game that may prove to be irreparable.
In the end,they are remembered more for what they wore and how they behaved than how they actually played the game....
Not so fab to me....



Photo Credit:

Joe DeVera/The Detroit News