First, You Win

I haven't seen it yet, and might not have the temperament to sit through it when I have the chance. It is a sports documentary produced primarily by Jalen Rose of ESPN, who, along with Chris Weber, Juwan Howard, Jimmy King and Ray Jackson made up Michigan's famous 'Fab 5.' The Fab 5 (self-titled) represented one of the best recruiting classes in the history of NCAA basketball, if not the best.

Their fame came in large part from the way their respective styles influenced the game. They credit themselves with the advent of baggy shorts, trash-talking, shaved heads, black socks, hip-hop music in the locker room, and an air of indifference to their coaching. They were the self-appointed and self-anointed 'bad boys' of college hoops.

Of course, you can't be a bad ass bad boy unless you are calling someone a 'bitch' or an 'Uncle Tom', which is precisely what Rose did in the lead up interviews to the airing of the film. The targets for his assault were, naturally, the Duke players the Fab 5 faced in the early nineties, in particular, Christian Laettner, Bobby Hurley and Grant Hill. I have always had a problem with Duke Haters who know almost nothing about college basketball, but an even bigger problem with those who try to settle athletic contests verbally, as well as those who engage in 'blacker-than-thou' arguments. So Krzyzewski didn't recruit in the urban areas? Wrong again: Coach K does not suffer punks and jerks. If you aren't coachable, you don't get to play at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

Unlike their counterparts from Michigan, the Duke players held their tongues, and proceeded to kick the asses of the Fab 5, not once, not twice, but three times, the sweetest of which was a 71-51 shellacking for the national title in 1992. The following year, Chris Weber (who evidently had the good sense to distance himself from the documentary) committed what was possibly the most bone-headed mistake in March Madness history, costing himself and his team another national title in a contest against North Carolina.

I can't help but wonder about the relationship of the Self-congratulating Bad Boys of Michigan to a more recent image of Lebron James and his teammates weeping in the Miami Heat locker room after a fifth straight loss weeks after they threw themselves a victory celebration before the season began and had even played a game.

Call me old-fashioned but I do miss the days where the rule of thumb was "shut up, play hard, win, and,when you cut down the nets, talk all you want."