The Fab Five: Basketball Trash Talk the American Dream by Mitch Albom

Author:Mitch Albom [Albom, Mitch]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Autobiography, Basketball, Biography, Non-Fiction, Sports
ISBN: 9780446517348
Google: QJieJyQQ2ogC
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Published: 2009-09-25T23:00:00+00:00

V

THE SUMMER OF

THEIR DISCONTENT

1

A warm breeze blew through the narrow streets of Venice, Italy, with its green water canals, gondolas, ancient churches, piazzas, cafes, souvenir shops …

… and Jalen Rose, talking into a video camera.

“This here’s Jalen Rose reporting for Stupid News! And here on Stupid News, we show the stupid things people do!”

The camera spotted an old Italian couple, who stared curiously at Jalen’s baseball cap and billowing shorts.

“These people,” Jalen said, pointing, “are searching for the fountain of youth! Stupid!”

Juwan and Jimmy cracked up.

The old folks smiled, not understanding a word.

“Let’s walk.”

The camera followed Jalen.

“Now, this is stupid …”he said, coming upon a female artist whose leg was in a cast from toe to thigh.

“This is what you call passing time, in Italy, when you can’t move.”

She looked at him curiously.

“Let’s walk.”

He bounced through the crowd, sliding in and out. He yelled “FIRE!” just to see if anyone understood him. “Stupid!” he said.

Suddenly a group of Italian schoolchildren, who recognized the Wolverines by their height and T-shirts, came running over for autographs. “Uh-oh!” Jalen yelled into the camera. “Here come more kids who never saw a tall black man before!”

Jimmy and Juwan cracked up again.

Steve Fisher walked ahead, with his wife, Angie, looking in the shop windows, snapping photos of churches, trying to ignore as much as he could. Was this the vacation from hell, or what? They had been like this since they got to Europe, all of the Fab Five, especially Jalen, playing the Ugly American, making fun of everything, moaning about how the food was lousy, the accommodations tiny, the bus rides too long, the stores too expensive. Maybe this wasn’t such a swell idea, Fisher thought, taking the team overseas for nine exhibition games, just a month after the NCAA championship defeat. He knew they were tired. He knew the season went longer than anyone expected. But the trip is only available once every four seasons, and he figured this would be a good bonding thing for next season.

Sure. And Mussolini was just misunderstood.

Things were changing. In less than a year, Chris, Jalen, Jimmy, Juwan, and Ray had gone from promising high school stars to worldwide celebrities. People in Italy, Switzerland, Monaco, and France were recognizing them—especially Webber and Rose—yelling, “Fab Feeve! Sign! Sign!” There were articles about them in languages they couldn’t understand. There was footage of them in countries they didn’t know existed. Although they had lost the championship to Duke, their flamboyance, bald heads, long shorts, and trash talk were remembered more clearly than the Blue Devils’ jump shots. They were famous. Rock-group famous. People imitated their style and their moves. Kids were asking for extra-long shorts. Summer was here, and the five of them had a million things they wanted to do with their newfound fame back in America.

And instead they were stuck in—ugh—Europe.

True, the itinerary, for most people, was a fantasy: fly into Venice, sightsee, play a basketball game, go to Yugoslavia, sightsee, play a basketball game, go to Switzerland, France, Monaco, stay at nice hotels, have your meals arranged, spending money provided.

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