Jalen Rose is pissed at former Fab Five teammate Chris Webber.
In an interview with ESPN, Rose blasted Webber for “lying to the grand jury” and derailing former Michigan coach Steve Fisher’s chances to reach the hall-of-fame
Via ESPN
“He absolutely deserves to be in the Hall of Fame, and if it doesn’t happen, it goes back to where he was implicated in something he was not guilty of,” Rose told ESPN.com referring to Fisher, who retired last week after 18 seasons as coach at San Diego State.
“Chris Webber didn’t own what he did and still hasn’t apologized, and there’s been a lot of collateral damage because of that, the number one person [affected by that collateral damage] being Steve Fisher. He wasn’t the person who lied to the grand jury. He’s not the person not choosing to apologize or reconcile any of that. Yet what he accomplished doesn’t get recognized.”
Steve Fisher, who is best known for coaching the famous “Fab Five” Michigan teams from the mid-to-late nineties, was fired from Michigan in 1997 and had multiple Final Four appearances and 113 wins vacated after federal investigators found out that booster Ed Martin paid four players a total of over $600,000 throughout the years.
Webber was one of the players caught up in the investigation and appeared before a grand jury where he was indicted on obstruction of justice and perjury charges after he denied that he had taken any money from Martin. Years later, Webber plead guilty to criminal contempt but has continued to vehemently deny ever being associated with Martin.
Jalen Rose has been beefing for years with Webber because he feels that his former teammate should come out and tell the truth to “protect the legacy of the Fab Five team”. Hopefully one day these two can hash it out because it’s a bummer to see them go at each other every few years.