Fab 5 banners would be restored if it was Michigan State
Updated March 18, 2026, 3:21 pm ET
- Jalen Rose and Chris Webber, stars of Michigan’s Fab Five groups within the early Nineties, reunited for an interview with Charles Barkley and Ernie Johnson.
- Rose lamented that the University of Michigan nonetheless has not acknowledged the Fab Five, greater than twenty years after the ruling from the Ed Martin scandal.
Fab Five stars Jalen Rose and Chris Webber joined forces this week for a twin interview for the primary time in roughly twenty years, they mentioned.
And Rose had a stern message for his beloved University of Michigan as an alumni, saying the Fab Five would be handled in a different way at Michigan State “because that’s a basketball school.”
The two native Detroiters − stars of some of the influential but notorious eras of college basketball − spoke on TNT Sports’ “The Steam Room” with hosts Charles Barkley and Ernie Johnson for a wide-ranging, 40-minute dialog about how they joined forces in Ann Arbor to kind the Fab Five (Rose, Webber, Howard, Jimmy King and Ray Jackson), their ideas on Michigan basketballthe Detroit Pistons and extra.
The most fascinating a part of the dialog got here close to the 21-minute mark, when Barkley talked about his time at Auburn. He mentioned the basketball crew was handled worse than the soccer crew, utilizing the eating corridor meals for example.
“It used to piss me off so bad. … Us and the swimmers and the other sports ate, and we’d have like hamburgers and hot dogs and [expletive] like that. And they’re like, ‘You gotta be out the dining hall by 7,’ and we’re like, ‘Why?’ – ”Cause the football team is coming in.’ And they’re putting out like steak and lobster, and I’m like, ‘This is some [expletive]”
“Oh yeah,” Webber mentioned, as he and Rose cracked up.
Barkley requested Rose and Webber if Michigan was the identical.
“The first year I felt that way,” Webber mentioned, calling his time at Michigan nice, with Heisman Trophy winner Desmond Howard and nice soccer groups. He mentioned they’d mentor lunches or mentor dinners and that was the “only thing we wanted to go to, because when the mentors came, we ate great. But we made a lot of comments, especially Jalen, about what we were given to eat then.”
“Chuck, I’m you,” Rose mentioned. “I complained the whole time. And Michigan is 100% a football school. And by the way, respectfully, and I’m a season-ticket holder and I’m an alum and Fab Five, shoutout to Dusty May I love him very much, and I think we’re gonna win [the NCAA tournament] this year, but to this day, Michigan still hasn’t acknowledged the Fab Five and our banners are not up. That’s definitely a football school and I know people are not going to like this, EJ: If we went to Michigan State, they would treat us different because that’s a basketball school. So you’re exactly right, Chuck. And yes the football team when you’re having 115, 120,000 every Saturday, that’s a football school. That’s what it’s gonna be and we did sense that, we did feel that and we still sense and feel that right nowas we’re not being acknowledged by the university.”
Webber smiled and laughed as Rose mentioned that closing sentence.
Michigan, led by the Fab Five below coach Steve Fisherwent to back-to-back NCAA championship video games in 1992-93. Then, Webber left for the NBA because the No. 1 general choose within the 1993 draft, and Rose and Howard adopted after their junior season ended with a loss within the 1994 Elite Eight to eventual champion Arkansas.
But scandal quickly rocked this system.
Michigan had its wins vacated and Final Four banners stripped from Webber’s two seasons after the Ed Martin booster scandal. In courtroom, Webber admitted to giving $38,200 to Martin in 1994 as partial reimbursement for earlier loans. Webber was ordered to pay $100,025 in 2005 on a misdemeanor contempt cost for mendacity to a federal grand jury about cash he’d obtained from Martin previous to his entry into the NBA. Webber was banned from the college from 2003-13.
This triggered a break up within the relationship, significantly between Rose and Webber, pals since grade college once they performed on the “Superfriends” AAU crew based mostly in Detroit. In highschool, Webber starred at Birmingham Detroit Country Day; Rose starred at Detroit Southwestern.
Webber refused to attend a Fab Five assembly or take part in ESPN’s acclaimed 2011 “30 for 30” documentary on the Fab Five.
[ Chris Webber’s Fab Five legacy complicated — time to end the timeout ]
Webber didn’t return to the campus in Ann Arbor till November 2018, 5 years after his NCAA-mandated 10-year disassociation with this system ended. He was coach Jim Harbaugh’s honorary soccer captain for a recreation in opposition to Penn State at Michigan Stadium and obtained loud cheers. The football-only appearance was a great stephe mentioned just a few days later.
Another member of the Fab Five, Juwan Howard, grew to become Michigan coach in 2019, prompting Rose to say the beef was squashed.
Webber and Rose lastly publicly made up in the spring of 2021after Webber was elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame.
Later that 12 months, Webber mentioned Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel had previously apologized on behalf of the college.
“His exact words [were]he needs ‘to apologize to the 18-year-old Chris Webber because we didn’t protect him,'” Webber advised ESPN days earlier than his induction into the Hall of Fame.
Manuel, employed in 2016 however who labored for the college throughout Webber’s time in Ann Arbor, shortly denied it.
“I can assure you I made no apology to Chris and, for those who may be curious, I never asked him to apologize to the University of Michigan,” I told ESPN.
The Fab Five reunited at Crisler Center in January 2024after a Michigan win over Ohio State – the primary time since their Nineties taking part in days all 5 had been collectively on the enviornment.
Howard was fired after the season following an 8-24 mark, essentially the most losses in a season in program historical past.
May quickly turned Michigan aroundprofitable the Big Ten Tournament championship in Year 1 and making a Sweet 16 run, then profitable the regular-season title by 4 video games (whereas setting a Big Ten file for wins in convention play) en path to a 31-3 file and 1-seed within the 2026 NCAA Tournament.
The Wolverines face 16-seed Howard in the first round on Thursday evening in Buffalo, New York.
You can watch the complete episode of “The Steam Room” under. Rose and Webber be part of on the 8:20 mark.
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