THE FAB FIVE

I know , I know this the Media Hero but i gotta touch the sports page a documentary film sparked this so HEY, it qualifies.
The Fab Five were a group of freshman baskettball recruits at the University of Michigan in the early 1990's. They were all together for 2 years , and went to national title games losing both. The fab five were a polarizing group who had a us against the world mentality. The documentary shows the crazy fanatical college fan, really asks the question should college players be paid? and were the fab five a bunch of thugs?
Before i get into the meet of the documentary i wanna talk about my interest in the fab five. These guys more or less opened my eyes to college basketball, I knew it existed previous to them , but they were the first team that ever peaked my interest and caused me to be a fan of college hoops. I was a massive fan of Michigan hoops , even going so far as stealing my older brother's michigan gear , wearing it to school and putting it back in his closet when i got home.

Chris Webber,Juwan Howard, Jalen Rose ,Jimmy King and Ray Jackson made up the Fab five. They all committed to Michigan and are considered to be one of the greatest recruiting classes of all time, all five were in the top 50 in the nation , which is something unheard of in baskettball. They stepped on campus and begin to have a big influence on college sports. They brought the "Michael Jordan look" to ncaa hoops , that being getting away from the short shorts of the 80's and going to the baggy shorts that are so popular now. As freshman they made there way through the tournament and came up just a little short against Duke in the National Title game.
Beyond just general interest because I was a big Fab Five fan growing up , there were two fascinating things that came out in this documentary. The first being the financial impact these guys had on the Univeristy of Michigan. They showed a chart showing that in the couple of previous years to there arrival Michigan made 1.5 dollars in merchandise and gear sold. In the following two years the number went up to 10.5 MILLION DOLLARS!!! This is a complete and total different argument , but that to me makes a case that College athletes should be paid.
THe second thing was the incredible amount of racism this group faced from fans. The crazy thing about that is alot of it wasnt from other schools , it was from Michigan alums and boosters. People who didnt like the fact here was group of black guys who played with a swagger and had an attitude. They showed a bunch of letters that were sent to both Coach Steve Fisher and the players themselves that had profanity laced racist tirades including calling the guys the "n" word. I just thought that was truly shocking here your team is a National Power and your sending offensive letters out to your team. Then of course we have the emphamis TIMEOUT.









As i said earlier the fab five made two straight title games the second loss ended in spectacular fashion. So the crew roles into the 92 title game the odds on favorite against North Carolina. Michigan is down 2 at the end of the game , they have no timeouts, Chris Webber gets the ball , walks (ref's dont call it) dribbles up the floor and calls a timeout. Well when you dont have a timeout and call one , it results in a techincal foul. Michigan went on to lose , Webber went onto the NBA and the fab five was no more. The crazy thing about this is that 20 years later all five guys remain friends and they dont speak about it. Chris Webber has never spoken about it. Dont get me wrong I would be devastated by that , but Never speaking about it seems really crazy to me.
A few years later after the guys were in the NBA or in Jimmy and Ray's case being in the buisness world it came out that there were some under the table things at Michigan. It came out that Chris received in the neighborhood of 300,000 dollars from a booster. Hmmm maybe thats why he decided Michigan over Duke?? The booster gave Jalen money as well but not near as much as Chris. Chris plead guilty to perjury chargers for lying to a grand jury. Michigan went under a 10 year ban of not recognizing that Chris Webber was a part of the University.
The Fab Five did leave a legacy , Uniforms in College basketball , Black Socks , They were the beginning of UnderClassmen making an impact in College Basketball. This documentary was shot from a very pro Fab Five perspective, they called themselves "Revolutionary" , now i was a big fan , still am but i cant agree with this. I think you have to win a National Title to boast like these guys do. The Fab Five are defintiely infamous , and will be remembered but revolutionary??? I dont think so. Nonetheless it was another masterful documentary in the ESPN 30 for 30 Franchise and a must watch for Sports fan in my opinnion.

30 for 30 - Jordan rides the Bus

As many of you know I am huge sports fan on the side and occasionally write on a few different sports blogs around the interwebs. Basketball has always been one of my favorite sports but by far my passion has always been baseball. ESPN, or as we call it The Network, is celebrating their 30th anniversary with a documentary series entitled 30 for 30. This week they finally returned to covering stories that are relevant to my sports love. They covered Michael Jordan's transition from basketball to minor league baseball. They looked at how Michael responded to the murder of his father and the transition from jumbo jets to riding the charter bus with a minor league baseball team. I saw the promo for this episode of 30 for 30 and immediately set the DVR to record.

Watching the first 20 minutes of this I seriously found myself a little upset with Jordan for making this attempt. By the way I am typing this as I watch the show so if my opinion changes dramatically don't jump on me. I have no clue what to expect. But anyways, I found myself very upset with Jordan. Some people try their entire lives just to make a name for themselves in baseball, a name that may make a kid get excited to get their baseball card. Jordan tried to show up and get that without any outside struggles or hardships. It looked like a huge publicity stunt by the White Sox and a major stretch for Jordan himself. Now I realize he says that his family issued the challenge to him to become a baseball player and I respect that but this whole circus they keep showing in this video is pretty insane.

The camerawork and editing in this documentary are very impressive, but the story so far is NOTHING new that hasn't been talked about. They were hyping this thing up to be the "insider" into Jordan's real days in Baseball. Not so much, ESPN hits on his father's murder, then his gambling problem, and then the relationship between the gambling and his father's murder. ALL things that have been talked about for years. Please give me something in depth here.

The second half of the documentary is more centered on the baseball 'career' of Jordan. I do like the mix of interview and authentic footage from back in the day but was it necessary to do interview the old real estate lady that got him his house in Birmingham? She makes people in that town look like country idiots. I will say that the interviews of his former teammates was very cool hearing about how they never made the majors but they felt like big leaguers when he was around.

My overall impression of this documentary was somewhat positive. I expected ALOT more from this but I definitely enjoyed it for the most part. For someone who has always played baseball and watched it, this was automatically interesting. Jordan's baseball career was insanely short but he did chase a dream/request of his murdered father. I applaud that dedication to his father but I also see it as somewhat of a media stunt just to keep his name in lights for a year or two until his big comeback in the NBA. Thats where Jordan belonged. In the NBA, dunking on people... not on a bus or wearing baseball pants. This may not be the usual Media Hero post but this is definitely a big entertainment event I looked forward to, if you don't wanna read this... not gonna hurt my feelings.