ESPN Films - The Fab Five

Description

They were one of the most famous – and infamous – teams in college basketball history. Arriving on the campus of the University of Michigan in the fall of 1991, the five freshmen —Chris Webber, Jalen Rose, Juwan Howard, Jimmy King and Ray Jackson—not only electrified the game, but also brought new style to the masses with their baggy shorts, black socks and brash talk. Forget what you remember about the Fab 5—this film will show them in an entirely new light. Review: Almost perfect - I agree that this story, the true story of the Fab Five in their own words, is long overdue. I title my review "Almost Perfect", because other than Chris Webber not being involved with this documentary, I thought it was perfectly done. Chris is obviously still carrying around alot of baggage from his time at Michigan, alot of unresolved baggage. The other 4 members say he simply won't talk about the "timeout" or the money he got from that Michigan booster. He needs to talk to someone about it or it's going to haunt him for the rest of his life. I look back at his NBA career and see how all that baggage affected him throughout his career. The trouble he got in early in his career with the Bullets/Wizards with smoking pot and drinking and then later when he was with the Kings and was afraid to take the big shot in the clutch against the Lakers in the playoffs. The latter was the direct result from the 1993 title game, he was afraid to fail under the spotlight again, he wouldn't take the big shot for fear of missing it and being labeled a guy who choked in the clutch again. The "timeout" was't all his fault and now more than ever I can understand why he called it in the 1st place. The assistant coach on the bench signaling for a timeout, teammates yelling for him to call a timeout and his point guard, Jalen Rose, on the replay running away from him instead of running towards him to get the ball from Chris. All these years I've thought about the play and thought to myself "where was Jalen, where was Jalen"?? When I played, I was always a center or power forward and when I got a rebound I was coached to look for your point guard and get the ball to him, he should be coming to get the ball from you. Which is exactly what Jalen Rose should have been doing to help Chris Webber. In the replay you can clearly see Chris looking for Jalen and Jalen running away from Chris with a UNC player between them waiting for Chris to pass the ball so he could intercept it. Chris tryed to pass Jalen the ball but saw the UNC player go for the pick at the last second, so Chris held onto the ball, traveled, which the refs let go, then dribbled in a panic up court into a trap with coaches and teammates yelling and screaming and called the infamous timeout. One can't help but wonder what might have happened had Jalen ran towards Chris to get the ball from him instead of running away from him. I never heard Jalen say why he didn't do just that, I would love to hear his answer. Chris Webber was one of the best, most talented, charismatic, exciting college basketball players of alltime and I hate the fact that he is remembered for that one play. I love ya Jalen but your as much to blame as Chris for what happened, you should have helped your friend and taken some of the heat with him, that kid was crucified and he didn't deserve it then or now. Sorry, I've just been wanting to write that for about 18 years now. Anyway, the documentary was very well done and I'm so glad to see that all 5 of them went on to successful careers in basketball, sports journalism and business. I'm very proud of all of them because I don't think anyone, especially the white media would have given any of them a chance to do anything outside of basketball sucessfully and they have proven them all wrong. Jalen Rose I am especially proud of, he went from a trash talking, loud, cocky punk on the court to become a very knowledgable, professional, articulate, well respected NBA analyst for ESPN. He did a great job with the production and narration of this documentary and I hope that he and Chris Webber are still friends and I hope he or any of his Fab Five teammates can help Chris to deal with and lay to rest these demons from the past he's carrying around. Let them go Chris, you were the most Fab of the Fab Five, they never even would have been in either title game without you. What happened was not all your fault, I love ya and every Fab 5 fan there ever was loves ya. I will buy this dvd when it comes out and every other Fab Five fan should too. Review: A Must See For Everyone - I just saw this on ESPNU this morning and it was totally amazing. I normally go to church Sunday mornings and something told me to stay home. I'm not much of a television person except for watching hockey and football. I turned on the set to see if I could find out how the NCAA hockey tournaments were doing, seeing that I will be attending the NCAA Frozen Four in Minnesota in April. I have been attending the Frozen Four since 1996. Any way, as I was scrolling the Directv's scheduling list, it showed in that time slot that they had showing SportsCenter U from 9 - 10 am and then College GameDay Scoreboard at 10 - 11 am. So I turn it on to see if I could get the scores of the tournament games when this documentary came on. I'm not much of a basketball fan because of the trash talking and not being team players, which were the opposite of these five players on the court. It also caught the interest of me when they were talking about Jimmy Walker who played at Providence College and whom I looked up to as a kid because of the fact that I use to see him in the gym of where I grew up, playing basketball with my dad and his friends. Then to watch him on the court when he played for PC and watch him do his magic. He was quite the player. I did not know that Jalen Rose was his son and that he did not recognize his son till it was too late. In this documentary you will see how corporations take advantage of weak and unknowings of individuals. I believe this film needs to be shown to all individuals, but especially to the youths who do not have a chance in these hard depressed neighborhoods. It is story that needs to be heard. This film brought a tear to my eye at the end of how they were exploited by the media and corporations, and then get blamed for things that happen. I'm hoping to contact these individuals once I open the doors to my business, which will focus on helping kids in these depressed areas, in the field of technology. I believe there are plenty of individuals who could be a big contributor in this field and change the course of technology as the The Fab 5 did in college basketball. I have been discouraged by several corporations and banking institutions in getting this started and was about to give up when I seen this film. Maybe that is why I got a sign to stay home from church today. Now it has given me a renewed aspiration to keep moving forward and to see this through. I bought this film so when my business starts working with these kids, I want to show them this film to show them what these five went through and accomplished.