BY JASON FITTER
May 31, 2017 — Jalen Rose knows a thing or two about basketball. As a player and commentator, the Fab Five icon has been involved in the NBA for 20-plus years.
In his eyes, we are on the brink of the most historic NBA Finals series of all time. Jalen, after some prodding, picked the Warriors in 6, with Steph Curry winning MVP honors. He also predicted that this will be the most watched Finals in NBA history, which given the storylines, makes a lot of sense.
For as bad as these playoffs have been we are owed a Finals for the ages. How fitting would it be for Mike Brown to coach the Warriors to victory over the team that fired him, twice? Is LeBron’s legacy any different if he ends this series with a 3-5 record in the NBA Finals? Would it be the biggest disappointment in NBA history if former MVP Kevin Durant joined a …
Plus, the ESPN commentator breaks down how NBA partying has changed through the years. BY JACK HOLMES
May 3, 2017 – Jalen Rose made the transition from professional athlete to ubiquitous media personality with a seamlessness that only Michael Strahan has matched. One minute, he was suited up in an NBA uniform; the next, he was in a suit on a TV set and chatting with Bill Simmons on the Grantland podcast. Now the longest-serving analyst on ESPN’s NBA Countdown, he has his own ESPN radio show with David Jacoby, and is working on a sitcom about his life and career, Jalen vs. Everybody, for ABC.
While he admits he was never an “all-time great,” Rose is also one of the most well-liked professional athletes in recent memory. The evidence is in the names: Nobody in the public eye was named Jalen before Rose appeared on the scene as part of the University of Michigan’s Fab Five, but an army of Jalens played in this year’s NCAA tournament. We caught up with Rose for his take on his popularity, what lies ahead in the NBA playoffs, and NBA party culture….
March 22, 2017 – The name Jalen and its variants are on a hot streak now that players born during the 1990s heyday of ‘Fab Five’ star Jalen Rose are grown up…
On the road to March Madness this season, Kent State University basketball teammates Jalen Avery and Jaylin Walker faced Jalen Jenkins of George Mason University, Wofford College’s Jaylen Allen and, twice, Jaylen Key of Northern Illinois University.
“I always had another Jalen on my team,” said Mr. Walker, a 19-year-old freshman, “ever since, like, elementary school.”
The name Jalen is on the rise in college sports, particularly basketball. That is because thousands of babies born during the 1990s heyday of Jalen Rose, the “Fab Five” University of Michigan star and midtier NBA player, are reaching adulthood.
This year there are 65 Jalens, Jaylens, Jaylans and other versions of the name on Division I basketball teams, up from 58 last year. Six years ago, there were just four.
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