SITE TOOLS
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Jalen Rose: Settling Down and Settling In South of the Bend
By Lisa R. Foeman
Pssssst! Come closer. Guess what? I’ve got a secret. I know how to defend
Jalen Rose. “…take [him] and hang out all night. Make sure [he doesn’t] get
sleep the night before [a game]. Make sure [he doesn’t] come to shoot around the day
of the game. Make sure [he has] no nap. No pregame meal. Make sure [he has] no mental
preparation. Make sure [he doesn’t] have a rap CD that [he] normally make[s] to
listen to and get [his] head right before the game. And then, when the game starts off,
don’t play [him].” You got it? Righty-o. Easier said than done! |
Courtesy NBAE
Jalen Rose
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Rose is a funny guy. Unpretentious, but about
the business. Altruistic, but not naïve.
When I spoke to Rose, he was preparing to return to the Indiana Pacers lineup after
suffering a broken wrist during the preseason. Describing his time on injured reserve,
Rose said, “I’m anxious to get back on the floor. It’s what I love to do.
I’m walking around like a lost man without a job.”
Rose, last season’s Most Improved Player, needn’t worry about losing his job
anytime soon. After serving as the Pacers’ sixth man in ’98, he took over Chris
Mullin’s spot in the starting lineup in ’99. As if starting wasn’t
significant enough, Rose went on to become the team’s leading scorer last season,
edging Reggie Miller, the team’s scoring leader from 1988-99. Rose’s 18.2 ppg
average was a 7.1 ppg increase from ’98. Not surprisingly, his playing time
increased: from 25.3 in ’98 to 37.2 in ’99.
While Rose certainly has mad, raw skills, his success is partly attributable to his hard
work in the off-season. After taking a very brief hiatus from the game at season’s
end, Rose gets back to it. During the off-season, “I work on my all-around game from
ball handling to passing to shooting to just skills to try to get better. It has helped me
to be one of the most versatile players out here because I continue to work on my total
game.” One day, Rose may work on drive-drive left. Another it’s dribble-drive
right. Yet another day, it may be shooting standstill threes or coming off screens. No
time is wasted.
Rose’s off-season mental preparation is just as important. Offered Rose, “when
the game’s over, [I] get absolutely as far away…as possible. When the
season’s over, I’m not listening to or thinking about everybody’s opinions
on the year. I’m not beating myself over the head about what I should have
done….When it’s over, it’s over.”
This positive mental attitude helps Rose discern the difference between being a starter
and a sixth man. “The difference between coming off the bench and starting is when
you come off the bench, you have to make an impact right away. And if that impact
isn’t immediate, you won’t be out there long. When you’re a starter, you
understand you don’t have to rush your game because you’re going to get the
opportunity to make plays.”
Rose, who describes himself as a “guard who can play forward,” appreciates the
unique learning opportunities afforded him in Indiana. Under Larry Bird, Rose played
forward and got to learn the position from his former coach, a Hall of Famer. Now playing
guard, he’s learning the ropes from another Hall of Famer, coach Isaiah Thomas, the
former Detroit Pistons guard.
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It's almost 10 years since the Fab Five
(Rose, Chris Webber, Juwan Howard, Ray Jackson and Jimmy King) took the floor as the
all-Freshmen starting squad from the University of Michigan. If the Fab Five were to
reunite as a traveling pro squad, how do you think it would fare?
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No disrespect intended
for Bird and Thomas, but the most significant impact on Rose, the basketball player, was
his high school coach, Perry Watson. He’s “the person [most] instrumental in
molding Jalen Rose as a basketball player” from ninth grade to now.
Rose’s status as a trendsetter, however, can’t be attributed to anyone but
himself and his Fab Five teammates at Michigan. Remember the black socks, the black shoes,
the long shorts and the bald heads? It all gelled to create an “aura of either love
us or hate us.” Many did hate the brash Fab Five who went to back-to-back NCAA
championship games as freshmen and sophomores.
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The newly-founded Jalen Rose Foundation is all about love
and caring for the community. Explaining the reasons for establishing the foundation, Rose
related that he’s always wanted to be “somebody who cares” and wonders why
more celebrities don’t do more for the community. The foundation, among other things,
will benefit public schools, churches, and soup kitchens and establish scholarships.
Exclaimed Rose, “it’s going to be enormous.” Now, you can’t have
anything but love for something like that. M
December 2000
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