Man Up

Jalen Rose has absolutely had it with Chris Webber, and to be honest, I'm there too. I was a nacent Michigan fan at the time the Fab Five debuted, having just converted from Spartanism that fall (I was 11 and only just starting to think for myself) and it was an exciting time. Webber got most of the love, and rightly so, being the best player on the team. Webber had the Hollywood smile, the jump out of the gym athleticism, and a flair to his game that had the student section falling over themselves.

Being 11, he was the first guy I noticed and easily my favorite. Webber's transgressions, at least as far as Jalen Rose is concerned, probably began with the timeout vs. UNC in the 1993 National Championship game. Michigan may have lost the game anyway (a 3 would've won the game, a 2 would've sent it to OT), but the technical foul assessed for calling a timeout he didn't have clinched it for North Carolina. In Webber's defense, Rose should've been bringing the ball up court and to this day I have no idea why he didn't.

After that game, Webber went pro and thus started his growing separation from his Fab Five bretheren. As Rose pointed out in his rebuttal to Webber's comments, Chris Webber was the only member of the Fab Five who didn't stay in contact with the rest of the group. I believe the real schism hit during the Ed Martin scandal. Of all the basketball players who testified, Webber was the only one who lied and said he didn't receive any money from Martin.

This wasn't the first time Chris Webber was in some kind of legal trouble - he had several marijuana incidents, one of which involved his girlfriend at the time, Tyra Banks, claiming that it was hers. So lying and lack of accountability weren't new to Webber, but this time he was throwing Ed Martin under the bus to protect Chris Webber's own image (which wasn't exactly sparkling in the first place). While Ed Martin wasn't exactly an altruistic figure in all of this (running an illegal gambling operation, etc.), the other members of the Fab Five remembered him fondly. Martin's money helped them get through some tough times and he gave plenty of gifts to people who weren't going to pay him back.

Again, every other basketball player involved told the truth - Robert Traylor, Louis Bullock, Maurice Taylor, Jalen Rose - except Webber. This Federal indictment cost Martin his life (he died of a pulmonary embolism prior to sentencing) and there was Webber, lying about Martin to make him seem worse than he was so maybe Chris's reputation could escape intact.

But that was years ago. Water under the bridge. Yes, the other Fab Five members probably still resented Webber for what went down with Ed Martin, but they were ready to bury the hatchet. ESPN did a 30-for-30 documentary on the Fab Five in 2011. It was a celebration of the team and the cultural impact of the Fab Five. Webber, the biggest member of the group, didn't participate.

In 2013, Michigan's disassociation with the members of the Fab Five ended, and coincidentally Michigan was in the NCAA Finals. There was a push, mainly led by Jalen Rose and Jimmy King, to get the Fab Five back together in the stands for the championship game. Four of them sat together (and I'm pretty sure that's Mayor Mike Duggan just behind Huwon Howard's shoulder) while Webber watched from a luxury suite somewhere else in the building.

I don't know what slights or resentments Webber is holding onto, but they all seem to be of his own creation. Some of what he told Dan Patrick on his radio show were flat-out lies to cover his own behind, some of his resentments (like his issue with the portrayal of his own role on the team in the 30-for-30 doc) can be traced directly back to his own poor decisions (namely, to abstain from participating in said doc).

Chris Webber remains my favorite player of the Fab Five, but my favorite person of that group is Jalen Rose. Rose, for all his faults, keeps it real. Webber has failed to keep it real his entire career and now into his post-career career. Like Jalen said, he needs to man up.