May 2015 — You may not be aware of this, but some people who are involved in basketball are also fans of hip-hop. Wild, right?Jalen Rose is one of these people. The former Fab Five member / 13-year NBA veteran is now an analyst for ABC and ESPN, and also has a heavy hand in deciding which instrumental tracks get played in the background during his NBA Countdown and ESPN on ABC telecasts. Which wouldn’t be a big deal if they were generic looping rock songs orvague dance tracks that were bought from some studio musician for $40 and a turkey sandwich. But they’re not. The instrumentals chosen by Rose and the team at ABC are anything but generic and vague. They’re HITS.Classic rap tracks, current hits, and memorable soul samples are what we now expect when we flip on a Jalen Rose-hosted roundball program. We spent some time talking to the Detroit-born host about how these songs are chosen, his new book, his NBA Finals picks, and which NBA personality has the wildest “off the record” stories.Interview by