Attention Whore Olympics: we have a new gold medal contender

The first hyphenated two words of Dan Rydell's avatar says it all.

 

Technically speaking, pubic lice are called crabs, so you're redundant there.

Carry on.

 

What do you expect from a Michigan man?

Too easy.

 

Terrible guy.

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071015/SPORTS06/710150341/1054

 

A statue at your house doesn't really feel any different to me than putting plaques on your wall. Buying a billboard? That's the next level in attention whoredom.

 

Self-centered creep on the court.

What's Webber's foundation called? "Time Out"?

 

Actually according to his wikipedia page, and I remember this being news, "Webber ... created The Timeout Foundation in 1993. The foundation's mission is to provide positive educational and recreational opportunities to youth. The foundation has provided academic scholarships, educational incentives, books, and various donations nationwide."

It looks like he changed it to an eponymous foundation.

As a child of the early 90s, I loved the Fab Five. Who cares if they didn't win anything (it's not like they lost to bad teams in the finals), they are much more memorable for the journey than for their result.

As for the money-taking, I'm not surprised and i don't think it really cheapens anything. The real recruiting crime in getting Webber and Rose to committ was hiring Perry Watson as an assistant a year before he took the job. I think it's silly to act like the Fab Five didn't exist. They were, and are, a cultural touchstone of that generation and the international growth of basketball and urban culture.

 

Or taking it the other way, an example of substance over style. A mentality especially pervasive these days in youth culture.

 

Snyder also wrote the story on the billboard, which appeared the day before.

Apparently the Free Press has decided it's "Suck-Off Jalen Rose Week."

"He didn't want to talk," yet he calls the newspaper to talk about the foundation.

Nothing wrong with the foundation, but he's been (over)paid over $100 million since 2000, so donating $1 million is not exactly sending him to the poorhouse. Plus it's all written off on taxes, so donating $1 million ends up costing him about 27 cents.

 

Here's my question, though: Did the Fab Five really lack substance?

I know it's popular to rip them, but they did make two championship games in eras where the best players stayed for three years, rather than one or two. Sure they lost both games, and we judge a team's historical importance by winning championships, and rightfully so, but I don't think the Fab Five should be judged as a harbinger for all that went wrong with basketball in the last 15 years.

They got ripped a lot for their histrionics and urban fashion sense, the latter being the undercover racist's calling card, but I'd really argue that they were overrated or underachieving. They lost to deep, talented teams in those championship games. They should've beaten North Carolina, but that Duke team was loaded.

I understand the problems people have with the team, past and present, but I still don't understand the hatred toward the group. Regardlesss of any malfeasance, it's a great story.

 

There's the thing. I can't disregard the malfeasance. They were getting paid. Would there have been a fab five withouth the money? Would they have all played together at the same school if they weren't getting paid?

 

Yeah, but the guy who paid Webber and Rose was a local guy from Detroit. He would've paid them regardless of where they went. He started paying other Michigan athletes because they went there. I'm not sure, but didn't most of the big money come in Webber's sophomore year? I thought that's what the courts found out.

EDITS: I was wrong, he had been a Wolverines unofficial booster for years under Frieder. I forgot about that. He was a local Detroit guy too, though, and still would've helped the kids out, but not nearly as much, I'm sure.