UM Alumni Magazine: Fab Academy
April 23, 2020 | Jalen Rose Leadership Academy Latest News Philanthropy
By Steve Friess — Jalen Rose was frustrated. When he began his career in philanthropy in the early 2000s, the former U-M basketball legend and then-NBA pro plunged his own money into a namesake program that granted $10,000 college scholarships to qualified underprivileged students from his native Detroit.
But after eight years, he had managed to award only 38 scholarships, spending $380,000 without making the broader impact he envisioned. “I found myself reaching out to Detroit high schools, trying to get administrators on the phone, begging them to take my scholarship money so that I could give their students an opportunity to go to college,” Rose, x’94, says. “I realized there was a systemic problem.
“If he was going to make a more substantial difference for more students, he’d have to do something bigger, more dramatic. So, in the fall of 2011, he plunged hundreds of thousands of dollars—the exact figure has never been disclosed—into an open-enrollment charter high school on Detroit’s economically challenged northwest side. The focus: preparing students for their post-graduation lives. To date, some 450 graduates, who at the Jalen Rose Leadership Academy (JRLA) are called “scholars,” …
Inside Philanthropy: Hoop Dreams: An NBA Veteran Talks About His School—and a New Generation of Athlete Givers
| Jalen Rose Leadership Academy Latest News Philanthropy Press
By Ade Adeniji — Motor City native Jalen Rose, 47, had his greatest success in the NBA with the Indiana Pacers, making three consecutive Eastern Conference finals, including a trip to the NBA finals in 2000, alongside Reggie Miller. Rose was a member of the legendary University of Michigan “Fab Five,” the first team in NCAA history to compete in the championship game with all-freshmen starters. Fellow Detroit native Chris Webber was also part of this high-flying team.
Since retiring from the NBA in 2007, Rose made a quick transition into broadcasting, working as an analyst for ABC/ESPN, hosting shows including “NBA Countdown,” “Get Up!” and “Jalen & Jacoby.” Rose brings a unique perspective as a former player who’s kept major ties to the NBA, and in our recent conversation, he was keen not only to share his own philanthropic story, but also talked about the next generation of NBA givers.
“A lot of it started at home, seeing the work ethic my mother had, working at Chrysler for more than 20 years, and also my uncles who worked at Ford and GM,” Rose explains to …
UPROXX: ‘Jalen And Jacoby’ Will Try Anything To Give The People What They Want
January 17, 2020 | General Latest News Press
JANUARY 16, 2020
NEW YORK — “If your superiors every one or two months aren’t questioning some of your content, then you’re not pushing the envelope,” Jalen Rose says with a wry smile.
“You’re not doing it,” David Jacoby confirms. “We get emails.”
In their nook of a studio at ESPN’s new Seaport facility, no larger than a medium-sized walk-in closet, the two hosts of Jalen & Jacoby reflect on some of their failed bits and segments of the past.
“This is eight years in development and we’ve tried a lot of things that didn’t stay, and most of the things that didn’t stick didn’t stick for a reason,” Jacoby says. “One thing that comes to mind is, we had a character called ‘Durag Jalen.’”
“And this was before I was trying to get waves,” Rose quips.
“Durag Jalen was wearing an undershirt and he had a durag on…” Jacoby continues.
“That most people call that type of shirt,” Jalen interrupts while pointing to the card that says “wifebeater” hanging from a clothespin on a string among their retired words in the rafters of the studio.
“Yeah, we retired that word,” Jacoby explains. “But Durag Jalen we had one …
