The Fab Five In 1991 in the Crisler Center Arena of Michigan University a revolution of culture rebellion had begun. The Fab Five or formally known as Juwan Howard, Jimmy King, Chris Webber, Jalen Rose, and Ray Jackson. Some might say they were the best thing to happen to basketball but to some they were everything that was wrong with college basketball. In my opinion they were more than just people playing basketball. The Fab Five transformed the way basketball is played and how it is viewed. The Fab Five transformed the game of basketball by the way they represented themselves and how they performed on the court. One example is that they all were starting as freshman on the team. For five freshman, not to mention there all african …show more content…
Before the Fab Five college basketball players were wearing high shorts that would hug those parts of the body nobody wanted to see. The shorts they would wear were like thongs. When the Fab Five arrived on the scene they immediately made a fashion statement to the world of basketball. Jalen Rose started the idea of having longer shorts that would reach knee length and lower. Realizing how much better the shorts looked on Jalen than the tighter more traditional basketball shorts, the rest of the Fab Five and the team decided on wearing them like Jalen did. This would start a historical moment in basketball as people and players would not have to wear those tight hip huggers anymore. Another fashion input the Fab Five put in was wearing black socks with the nike emblem. No one would ever wore black socks in a basketball game. Jimmy Spencer, former writer for NBC Sports, writes, “The team’s trademark baggy shorts served as an emblem that stood for more than just fashion.” It was foreign to the world basketball, until these five men from Michigan made it popular. In 1993, for some reason wearing white socks didn’t seem to appeal to the fans of basketball. Black socks wear made to be worn by the Fab Five and the Fab Five made them the hot new product for all players to wear. The world itself would transcend as the Fab Five would not only change the basketball culture but the fashion world as …show more content…
The majority of people in the 1990’s thought that if you listen to N.W.A, Wu Tang Clan, and EPMD you were a gangster. Some people even thought that if you wore a snapback, if you wore baggy pants and a shirt you were considered a hoodlum. The basketball world had never heard of rap, or pregame pump up till the Fab Five. Jimmy Spencer points out, Much of the Fab Five's style and attitude intermingled with the increasingly popular hip-hop culture that was growing into the game.They made it open and clear to everyone what they like. They were the first ones in basketball ,in my opinion, to say it was alright to listen to Big Daddy Kane, Naughty by Nature, and A Tribe Called Quest. Now when people of the basketball heard this majority placed labels upon them like any other person would do at that time. Players had no thought of expressing themselves and showing more to the world than basketball. The Fab Five made it alright and paved the way for many athletes to voice their likes and
The source that I used, “Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Biography” by Biography.com no authors are listed is a great source that gave me a lot of information that will help me with my reader response essay. I came across this website by entering my search question into Google. After looking through a dozen of articles “Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Biography” had the most detailed information of all the links. This article gave me a lot of information that will be correlating to my search question which is this: What major influences did Kareem Abdul-Jabbar have in his basketball career? The “Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Biography” article had three sections that broke
...nly overall, but in each of their own individual ways. Jackie Robinson changed the world of sports and helped make baseball the way it is today. Martin Luther King Jr. assisted in ending segregation forever and made impacts even when he wasn't alive. Fredrick Douglass was one of the main people who helped end slavery and get African-Americans some of the rights they deserve.
In a year were so many great athletes are no longer with us, Payne Stewart, Wilt Chamberlain, Joe DiMaggio, Walter Payton, the man we thought would have passed away first is still among us, Magic Johnson. Rick Reilly does a remarkable job on this praising article on Magic. Reilly talks about how fit magic is. "He can bench 325 pounds. Weighing 245, he's about 20 pounds heavier than he was in his prime, but now he's ripped." He is still playing basketball in different celebrity appearances, and plays quite well in them although he is way older than everyone there. What really impressed me the most about Magic is influence as a black businessman. Reilly showed me, as well as America, a different side of Magic that is not seen on Sports Center. "He owns five Starbucks and has plans to open 10 more, nearly all of them in black neighborhoods, including one in Crenshaw and one in Harlem." Magic is willing to put money into the ghettos when other white investors are not. He owns many different businesses, from a TV company to a bank. What is truly amazing is he hires all black people to build and work his businesses. "Magic feels like many black athletes forget where they came from, I try not to." When I read this I was really stunned. He made a fortune taking risks that many other people won't try. He is living his life to the fullest and using his HIV experience to educate great number of people.
Howard, another McDonald's All American, was a multi-talented forward from Chicago. Texas natives King and Jackson capped off the Fab Five Freshman season. While Jackson was an incredible defensive player, King was a super athletic guard [Wieberg]. Growing up wasn’t exactly easy for the “Fab Five,” most grew up poor, and the only thing keeping them from leading a life of crime was basketball. Jalen Rose grew up on the south side of Detroit, and saw dope and weed everyday on his way to school [ESPN 30 for 30].
Several foreign basketball players have individually left their marks on NBA courts, in NBA record books, and in their fans’ hearts. Different ethnic groups, races, and sports fans in general have united, cheering on heroic efforts from players from overseas. These international players amped up the level of competition in basketball and found themselves at home in the NBA. Four international players have been honored with the most prestigious award a player can receive in professional basketball, NBA MVP. These same four players are undoubtedly future Hall of Famers and were listed in the top 30 international players of all time in a 2013 “Dime Magazine” article (Daruaku). These four players, Steve Nash, Tim Duncan,...
Basketball players were not paid all as well and did not play as hard and they looked up to legends. “Smith is Abe Lincoln in a sports world” (Reilly 2). Both Abe and Smith include blacks in their activities. “In today’s scandal-dripping land of college basketball, couldn’t we all use a little of Dean Smith” (Reilly 2). So many people only went to basketball games were that they only wanted to she the famous people that play and to get their
There is an astonishing lack of positive Anglo-American role models in the NBA. An overwhelming majority of celebrity basketball players are African-Americans. Such names as Michael Jordan, Shaquille O'Neal, Magic Johnston, Penny Hardaway, Grant Hill, Scotty Pippin, and Charles Barkley evoke visions of success and greatness in the minds of many young people, but can Anglo-American youngsters really be expected to identify with these African-American cultural icons? Similarly, almost all contemporary movies about basketball center around African-American rather than Anglo-American characters. Shockingly, many basketball themed movies which feature Anglo-Americans portray them in a negative light, perpetuating a derogatory stereotype of Anglo-American basketball players, and further reducing the likelihood of their success. Some films even have titles which mock the challenges faced by Anglo-Americans in the basketball industry; a popular film from the early nineteen nineties was titled White Men Can't Jump.
Wiggins, David Kenneth, and Patrick B. Miller. 2003. The unlevel playing field: a documentary history of the African American experience in sport. Urbana: University of Illinois Press
When I began my report I didn’t know much about Michael Jordan, but I did know that he was “undoubtedly the greatest player in the history of the NBA'; (“Michael Air Jordan'; 1). It seemed like every time I heard the word basketball I also heard the name Michael Jordan. There’s just no avoiding him. If you are watching television you might see him playing basketball or golf. If you were reading a magazine there will probably be an advertisement with his picture. If you were walking down the street you might see a kid wearing Air Jordan shoes or a Bulls jersey with “JORDAN'; on the back of it. This man is probably as recognizable as the Pope.
Like Robinson, these men paved the way for today’s players and are the reason that the best athletes in the world now play in the NBA.” (Dave Howell, NBA.com, Six Who Paved The Way, Page 1). African-Americans in basketball, more specifically the first 5 players, began to make people realize that African Americans were not foreign creatures, they were actual people. People also began to realize that African Americans make equally as significant contributions to the society and community as anyone else
Feng Ru, Jackie Robinson, and Melba Beals. What do all these people have in common? They all have created turning points in our lives and their countries. Melba Beals and Jackie Robinson were two people who broke rules that kept black people from doing certain things. Feng Ru impacted his us by being the person who founded aviation for his country.
“We are more visible, but not more valuable”. This famous quote was said by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, one of the most famous black basketball players, symbolized what many black athletes were pursuing when they first got into sports. In today’s world not only are black athletes a part of our sports venue, they are dominating the landscape of some sports such as the NBA which consists of a whopping 80% black athletes. Black athletes continue to revitalize sports in America as some athletes became the face of their sports such as Muhammad Ali in boxing, Jackie Robinson in baseball and Michael Jordan in basketball. Sports came as a form of entertainment for many Americans, but for black athletes it came as a pathway to express who they were and what they believed in. The more they became involved in sports, the more media they were able to attract which enabled them to talk about topics other than sports such as racism, their religions and equality through the civil rights movement. These views and statements made in their interviews and press conferences were the ones that became publicized and more popular amongst the typical white men in America and it played a huge role in changing the way blacks were viewed in American society.
As hip hop culture became prevalent in pop culture, so did black culture. Hip hop stems from black struggle. Their vernacular, songs, and spiritual ways were different from what whites were used to. Their different lifestyle of “living on the edge” was intriguing yet inaccessible for the whites living among them. Thus, this initiated America’s fascination with the culture. It became about what people assume and perceive about black people rather than what they actually are. In essence, an essential to cool is being on the outside, looking in. In the media and celebrities today,
The Fort Shaw girls basketball team and the novel, Full Court Quest, is very inspirational to Native American history. These girls went out on to the court, forgot all their worries, and put their heart in soul to every game they played despite cultural issues and personal issues. Basketball was being newly introduced into the public, which was mainly made up of whites. This was very brave of the the basketball girls and also all who were included associated with the Fort Shaw boarding school because they were the minority. Native Americans were suppose to forget their own culture and evolve into white culture. However, Native Americans took basketball and taught it to the whites. This made some whites contradict their previous feelings and start to believe that Native American culture isn’t completely inferior to white culture.
These six words in many ways defined the late 1980s and 1990s, encapsulating the rise of hip-hop, NIKE, Michael Jordan, and the racial-class narratives embedded in each of them. The problem of such ethos are highlighted in a music video from Seattle’s very own Macklemore and Ryan Lewis.