ESPN Films (2011–2021): Season 1, Episode 1 - The Fab Five - full transcript

[indistinct chattering]

-When the banners
were snatched down

and they rolled 'em up and
put 'em in the basement...

it rocked me to the core,

because we had put
so much into that.

Like...

it's like snatching
your life dreams away.

When you mess up,

there are consequences.

And know that you get paid

by being erased.



[narrator] Deep within the archives
at the University of Michigan,

lie the remnants
of a revolution.

To some, it was the flash
point of a cultural rebellion.

To others, the essence
of all that was wrong

with college sports.

[audience cheering]

[announcer 1]
I think it's going

to the NCAA final four!

[announcer 2]
He gets it, jams it.

[narrator]
Where these hallways end,

a legacy lies in limbo
and our story begins.

[audience cheering]

[announcer]
Already, baby!

Here they go!
The Wolverines!



-We gonna shock the world!

[announcer] Technical foul!
Technical foul!

-This is a day of great shame

for the university.

[announcer] Three seconds
remaining in the game.

Michigan up by one.

Here we go. Final three.

Ramos, baseball pass
the other way.

It comes to Walker and Green.
Walker turns, forces, misses.

Michigan has won the NCAA
basketball title!

[narrator]
The Michigan Wolverines

weren't supposed to win

the 1989 National
Championship.

Certainly not just three weeks
after Steve Fisher

had been promoted to replace
head coach Bill Frieder

on the eve of the NCAA
tournament.

Fisher did get
the full-time job,

but the following season
the Wolverines were bounced

in the second round
of the tournament.

And the next year
was even worse.

[Steve Fisher]
We struggled.

Lost in the first round
of the NIT.

And a lot of places,
NITs are pretty good.

But where we were,
it was unacceptable.

-Steve Fisher was really

essentially on the hot seat
that year.

Remember now,
the championship that he won,

even though he was on
that coaching staff,

people did not consider
those guys his players.

They were somebody else's.

So now he has to go out
and keep Michigan

at a high level.

-All the talking heads said,

"Well, Fisher won.

He won with Frieder's talent.

But now, can he do
what's most important?

Can he recruit?

-We had some debate,

who was the most important
recruit for Michigan?

And someone would bring up
it's Chris Webber.

And I said,
it's not Chris Webber.

It's Juwan Howard,
because I think Juwan Howard

wants to come.

And if we lose Chris Webber,

Juwan Howard will still give us
the type of recruiting class

that we can build on
and be successful with.

[narrator]
In 1990,

Juwan Howard was one of
the nation's top prospects.

A first team all-American

from Chicago's notorious
South Side.

[Juwan Howard] Yeah, my mom
and dad had me at a young age.

And my grandmother
took that responsibility,

took that role,

to be my mother
and father combined.

The Howard family
is very small.

But we were
a close-knit group.

And I think a big reason
for that was my grandmother.

I wanted to go to a university

that coaching staff,
the players...

was all a family.

-I spent every day recruiting
Juwan Howard.

That means if he was playing
in an open gym in a park,

I was at the open gym.

That means if he was at
a summer league game,

I was at the summer
league game.

I convinced myself I was not
going to be outworked

to get Juwan Howard.

[Fisher]
Juwan trusted us

taking care of him,
looking after him

like his grandmother had

when he was growing up
in the projects

of the South Side
of Chicago.

[Howard] The day I declared to
go to University of Michigan,

I woke up that morning
and I was all excited

about the press conference
at school.

And I recall my grandmother

helping me get ready
that morning.

I came back home
after basketball practice.

There was a friend
of the family

walking out of our home.

And she said,
"Your grandmother passed away."

And...and I'm like...

I didn't believe her.

[Fisher] Juwan signed his
national letter at 8:00 a.m.,

got a phone call at 6:00 p.m.

that Juwan's grandmother
had died

of a massive
heart attack.

Juwan was uncontrollable
in his sorrow.

So Brian and I,

along with my wife, Angie,
jumped on a plane,

and we felt we had to be there
for him during that time.

-And we had a lot of friends
and family members show up

to my grandmother's funeral.

But what meant the most to me,
to see Coach Fisher there,

Coach Dutcher,
to be there for me.

And that was the start of
me building a new relationship

with a new family.

[narrator]
With Howard signed,

next on Michigan's wish list
was Jimmy King,

a highly touted shooting guard
out of Plano, Texas.

[Jimmy King] My recruiting
trip to Michigan,

it was the first chance
I got to meet Juwan.

I could tell that he was
leaning towards Michigan.

My mind wasn't made up.

-Brian Dutcher told me
that Jimmy

was being heavily recruited
by Kansas.

He's kind of like 50 here,
50 there.

And I was like, well,
we have to change that.

I told them, "I'm coming to
Michigan, I need him there."

I think that was the turning
point right there.

-We were coming back
from Benton Harbor.

I vividly remember it.

And that was in the day where
you had a 50-pound cell phone

with something you had to put
on the top to get reception.

-I got the phone up
and I'm like,

"Coach, I decided
to come to Michigan."

He's like, "Yahoo!"

-We let out a cheer
that he could have heard

without the phone.

[King] With everybody
in the cars yelling.

And I'm looking at the phone
like this, like, wow.

Like, is this a joke?
This is serious?

Like, they're that happy
that I came.

[man]
Jimmy, congratulations, guy.

-Hey.

[narrator]
Michigan's next target

was also from Texas:

Austin guard Ray Jackson.

[audience cheers]

[Ray Jackson] Juwan was the mastermind
behind everything.

He's the centerpiece.

Juwan was like, you know,
"Me, Jimmy King and yourself,

we can make something happen."

-Once we got Juwan,

then he helped us get
Jimmy King and Ray Jackson.

So that was a phenomenal
recruiting class early.

That would have been enough
for most teams

to stop and say, "That's what
we'll go with next year."

But we had the luxury
at that point

of having them in the fold,

and then spending all the rest
of the year

until the April signing
recruiting Jalen and Chris.

[Jalen Rose] Growing up
on the west side of Detroit,

I know about mayonnaise
sandwiches and sugar water,

doing what I got to do
to survive.

I have two older brothers
and an older sister.

And I have a different father.

My mother was working
as hard as she can

to do the best she could
for her family.

So I didn't want to be like
a person that was burdening her

with the questions
about my biological father

when he wasn't there.

I found out about Jimmy Walker
from being at, you know,

the famed St. Cecilia Gym

in Detroit.

Sam Washington,

who was the athletic director
there...

he saw me goofing off
in the gym one day,

and Sam brought me
in the building.

And he put on a film
of my father

really putting in work.

[narrator] The man in the films
was Jimmy Walker,

the nation's leading scorer,

with Providence College
in 1967.

[announcer]
Jim Walker is known

for his remarkable poise when
directing the Friar offense.

His brilliant ball handling
and great shooting ability

make him a constant
scoring threat.

[narrator] He was the top pick
of the '67 NBA draft,

averaging 17 points a game
in his nine-year pro career.

But until the day he died
in 2007,

he had no relationship
with his son, Jalen Rose.

-When I went to high school,

instead of wearing number 24,

I wore number 42
out of spite,

because 24 was Jimmy Walker's
number.

And when you're
a high school kid,

you're always looking
for some sort of motivation.

But I always told myself that
he would know my name one day.

The first time I really
started playing organized ball

was sixth and seventh grade.

[announcer]
Come on, take it all the way.

[audience cheering]

[woman]
We love you, Jalen!

-That was my first opportunity
to be introduced to AAU ball.

And the game teammates
were Chris Webber.

[Fisher]
Jalen and Chris grew up

in our backyard.

We recruited Chris Webber
when he was 12 years old.

We saw him dunk in an AAU
basketball game.

We said, "Who is this guy?"

So he was a known commodity
from the state of Florida,

the state of Washington,

everybody knew
who Chris Webber was.

[narrator]
In ninth grade,

Webbed enrolled
at the prestigious

Detroit Country Day School,

where he blossomed
into the nation's

top high school player.

[audience cheering]

Rose, meanwhile,
attended Southwestern High,

a Detroit public school
powerhouse

coached by local legend
Perry Watson.

[man]
Your only day off is Sunday.

-Yeah.

[chuckles]

Praise God.

[laughter]

-Detroit Southwestern was one
of the top basketball programs

in the country.

If you walk into
Detroit Southwestern's gym,

it looks like Boston Garden.

My senior year,
maybe nine or ten of us

actually went to Division 1
college.

[audience cheers]

In the city of Detroit,
there's a huge difference

between playing private school
basketball

and public school
basketball.

Playing private school
basketball,

the teams have busses,

they can shower
after the game.

And there's really
no element of violence.

Playing public school league
basketball

is just the opposite.

You gonna play a game
against Northwestern, or Cody,

or Cooley, or Finney,

there were some volatile,
hostile environments.

[audience]
Oh!

[Rose] It was very violent.
Very competitive.

Guys would be standing
underneath the basket

or in the stands
with their hand in the coat,

like, you might want to miss
this free throw

or we gonna see you
in the 'hood.

-I often thought that Chris was
uncomfortable in his own skin.

He wanted to be a street kid.

He wanted everybody to think
that he was a tough,

you know,
inner city tough guy.

And he wasn't.

-I think every year,
I've always succumbed

to the pressure,

and I've always felt bad
or guilty,

because I didn't want to--

I was just being overworked,
I think, by a lot of things.

Not just basketball,
but by the media

or by just people.

[narrator]
Webber led Country Day

to the state's Class B title,

earning Michigan's coveted
Mr. Basketball honor

along the way.

College coaches salivated.

Letters poured in
by the boxload.

And as the signing
deadline neared,

the intrigue only intensified.

-Chris Webber
can do everything.

He has college coaches
around the country drooling.

But where will
he attend school?

Go ahead and announce it
right now if you want.

-I'm going-- No, I don't know
where I'm going.

[Howard] Chris Webber?
I think I recruited him

harder than
our assistant coaches

at the University of Michigan.

I called that guy
three times a week.

And I knew that Duke
was the school

that he was eyeing,

and Michigan State.

So I recruited him so hard.

And I got that deal done.

-I don't know why
it's so big, you know.

I'm just going to school.

But...

next year,
I'll be a Michigan Wolverine.

[crowd cheers]

[Dutcher]
These kids wanted to win.

They weren't thinking NBA
at that point,

because high school kids
weren't going to the NBA yet.

So they were looking
for the best possible

college team
they could play on.

[narrator]
That same day,

Rose captured his second
consecutive

Class A state title.

And Southwestern finished
at the number one-ranked team

in the country.

Immediately after,

he declared that he, too,
would attend Michigan.

The school had captured five
of the nation's top recruits

in one class,

and Rose's longtime coach,
Perry Watson was soon hired

as Steve Fisher's newest
assistant.

In the fall of 1991,

the group descended upon
Ann Arbor

for the first day
of their freshman year.

[Rose]
The first day the Fab Five

stepped on the
University of Michigan campus,

that was the start
of the revolution.

It just so happened that
this revolution was televised.

[narrator]
In the early '90s,

another revolution
was afoot.

Hip-hop street-born style
was permeating pop culture.

Whether it was hats, pants,

chains or clocks,

bigger was better.

Baggy was in.

But college basketball
lagged behind.

-Before the Fab Five,

you know, dudes was wearing
panties out there playing.

-Anybody were to look back
and look at the shorts

that anybody wore
in 1988 or '89,

they'd be viewed
as obscene now.

[Fisher] We had those
hip-huggers from the old days

that looked like Speedos now.

[Rose]
For me, personally,

shorts was always an issue.

The first day we got uniforms,

I did exactly what
I tried to do in high school,

is to get the biggest pair
of shorts.

I picked out a nice big pair.

But the problem was,
they were for Chip Armer.

They had number 43 in it.

So when Chip showed up
that day,

I asked him.

And God bless him,
he was cool with it.

-Jalen initiated
the baggy shorts.

We were tired
of the little shorts.

[chuckles]

-So we went to coach one day
after practice

and we said, "Fish, look,
we need to be comfortable."

-We can't have those shorts
that you see in Utah,

with John Stockton,
Karl Malone.

You know, we don't want
to look like that.

You know, we like the shorts
like how Michael Jordan wear,

with the Bulls,
but longer.

-Bottom line,
it came down to coach.

He said, "If you all decide
to go with these baggy shorts,

"and y'all promise
y'all will win me games,

then I'll do it."

[Fisher]
We knew we had a good class.

We were never hesitant
to say that.

But we had some good players
returning.

Three starters coming back
from the previous year.

All five freshmen think
they're going to start,

but it won't happen.

I knew they were good.
How quickly could they fit?

Who would separate themselves,
if anybody?

Those are all the things
that you have to wait and see.

[audience cheers]

[narrator]
The season began

with three freshmen
in the starting lineup:

Rose, Howard, and Webber.

They opened with four
straight wins.

But then came their first
real challenge:

a matchup against the
defending national champions,

the Duke Blue Devils.

With the college basketball
world buzzing

over the brazen group
of freshmen

now known as the Fab Five.

[interviewer]
How do you feel about going up

against the number one team
in the country?

Is there something special
that you feel about this?

-It's not necessarily-- We're
not trying to prove ourselves.

See, you know,
some people rate them

as the number one team
in the country.

But a lot of teams have been
rated number one in the field.

Anybody can be beaten.
No one's invincible.

And we're not trying
to prove anything to anybody.

All we're gonna do is play
as hard as we can,

and it'll be an exciting game.

[interviewer] It's important
to you, isn't it?

-It's a big game.
-Oh, I mean, you know,

you have to be excited about
playing the number one tea.

-See, a lot of people say
it's experience versus youth.

And that's not true,

because we have some experience
on our team also.

You know,
there's a combination.

I just look forward to it
being an exciting game.

[interviewer] Fair enough.
Okay, good luck, guys.

Thanks a lot.
I appreciate it.

What's this sign
you're gonna give me?

-Five times. Young guns.

-That's five times.

-No Fab Five.
-All of us brothers.

-No Fab Five.
No Fabulous Five.

None of that.

-Five times. Five times.

-None of that number one
and all that.

-We're just five times.
-[laughter]

-Let's go!
-We gonna get pumped!

-What up, Detroit?
-What's up, Detroit?

Hey, I know I need a fade,
but you know how we do it.

-Can't get a haircut
every time.

-Can't get a fade every day.

[Rose]
For me, Duke was personal.

I hated Duke,

and I hated everything
I felt Duke stood for.

Schools like Duke didn't
recruit players like me.

I felt like they only
recruited black players

that were Uncle Toms.

-The faces of Duke,
I didn't like them.

-I hated Duke. I hated Duke.

[Howard]
You had Coach K.

You have Christian Laettner,

Bobby Hurley, Grant Hill.

I mean, yeah,
they're winning.

Keep in mind, they won
a championship the year before.

I respect that.

But we are talented too.

[Rose]
I was jealous of Grant Hill.

He came from a great
black family.

Congratulations.

Your mom went to college

and was roommates
with Hillary Clinton.

Your dad played in the NFL.

Was a very well-spoken
and successful man.

I was upset and bitter

that my mom had to bust
her hump for 20-plus years.

I was bitter that I had
a professional athlete

that was my father
that I didn't know.

I resented that more so
than I resented him.

I looked at it as,

they are who
the world accepts.

And we are who the world hates.

[audience cheering]

[Howard]
Duke was like America's team.

And Christian Laettner
was, like,

God.

And I did not like him.

[announcer] A 6'11" senior
from Angola, New York,

number 32,
Christian Laettner.

-I thought Christian Laettner
was soft.

-Overrated.

-Pretty boy.

-A bitch.

And I thought Grant Hill
was a bitch.

-I thought Christian Laettner
was an overrated [bleep].

I really did...

until I actually
got on the floor with him

and realized
that he had game.

[narrator]
Michigan struggled early.

But despite the deficit,
they were as advertised.

Irreverent upstarts,
brilliant playmakers.

[announcer]
Alley-oop, plays it through.

[narrator]
With Duke maintaining

a double-digit lead
in the second half,

the Wolverines
faced a choice.

-They was beating us down
on our home floor.

Either we try to find a way
to fight back into the game

and really show
what we're made of,

or we roll on over.

[narrator]
They didn't roll over.

They stood up and stared
the champions down.

[announcer] Wolverines not
intimidated at all by Duke.

Well, the freshmen
have proved one thing,

and in fact
this entire team:

they can play basketball.

[narrator] Spurred on by a
raucous Chrysler Arena crowd,

the Wolverines fought
their way from 17 points down

to tie the game.

[announcer] Michigan with
a chance to take the lead.

Webber, he gets it, jams it.

[audience cheers]

Eighteen for Webber.

[narrator] With the score tied
and overtime looming,

Webber launched a 60-footer
for the win.

[announcer] Way back,
Chris Webber, two seconds.

He'll launch three-quarters
length of the court.

Off the rim!
We're going to overtime!

Oh, my!

[narrator]
Then, down three

on their final
overtime possession,

Michigan took one last shot

to extend the afternoon
even longer.

[announcer]
They've got to get it

to a three-point shoot
over to Pelinka.

Pelinka needs help.
Launches from 24.

Misses off the irons.

Rebound, Rose's following shot
doesn't drop.

And that's the ball game.
And Duke escapes with the win.

[Fisher] We lost, but it was
a nationally televised game

where people said

there is some substance
to all the hype.

-People were shocked
that five freshmen

could hang on the floor

with the defending
national champs.

And the thing
that you knew was

that you were going to see
these kids again.

The best was yet to come.

[narrator]
When conference play began

in January of 1992,

Jimmy King had joined
Michigan's starting lineup,

leaving Ray Jackson
as the team's only freshman

still coming off the bench.

[Jackson]
It was extremely tough

being the fifth wheel
of the Fab Five.

You got to remember,
I came from Texas,

where I was one of the top kids
in the state.

Sitting on that bench
watching,

going in for five minutes

and not playing
the rest of the game.

There was times I wish
I had've went

somewhere completely
different.

I was ready to transfer.

The brotherhood,

the connection that I had
with these guys,

that helped me.

It helped me a lot.

I mean, that's one
of the reasons

we have such a strong
connection and bond together,

is because they wouldn't
allow me to give up.

I'm coming from
the state of Texas.

We hardly ever see snow.

Jalen gives me his coat
during the winter.

You know, when the first
snow hits,

I'm ready to go back to bed
and not go to class.

Jalen is there
to give me his coat.

Like, "Come on, man."

It's the little things

that make those
relationships

and those bonds
strong and unbreakable.

[narrator]
It wasn't until the Wolverines

traveled to Notre Dame
on February 9th

that Steve Fisher
finally decided to do

what he had vowed he wouldn't

just a couple of months
earlier:

start all five freshmen.

-We had been somewhat sluggish

in how we had played
and even practiced,

and I felt that we needed

something that might
spark the excitement

that I felt we were lacking.

-Coach was going over
the game plan.

He started to write all
these matchups on the board.

He put the other team's
five players up there.

So as he was going down
the tiers of the lineup,

he wrote Ray's name up there.

So we all perked up like,

it's going down today.

We about to do this.

[narrator]
Twenty years earlier,

freshmen weren't allowed
to play varsity ball

in the NCAA.

Now, five freshmen
were starting

a major college game.

-We'd been waiting
for this day

since the season started.

We look at one another

and we, like,

"This [bleep] better work."

[Perry Watson]
It was obvious

that we should be starting
the Fab Five.

They wanted to be
on the floor together.

So we were all excited.

We were all excited
not only as players,

but as coaches,

that now we're going to see
what we're made out of.

[announcer]
There's a turnover now,

trying to get it inside.

Jackson leap-toe...

Whoa! Oh!

[no audio]

[Jackson]
That feeling was ecstatic.

I was almost ready
to jump out of my shoes.

[laughs]

I'm surprised
I didn't throw

the first ball I touched
into the stands.

[announcer] Ray Jackson fires
from just inside the line.

-What made me feel so good
about that was,

the entire team
was excited for me.

[announcer 1] He's not tall,
as big people go.

Whoa! Reverse slam by Jackson.

[announcer 2]
Remember, you're watching

five freshmen out there.

[announcer 1]
And now goes down low

to high-jumping Jimmy King,
who puts a twister in.

-You could feel it.
You could feel an electricity

that that five had
amongst themselves.

They said,
"We're here together

and we're gonna stay here
together."

[announcer 1] Up court it goes
to Jalen Rose.

Dish to Jackson.

[announcer 2]
Oh! That was unselfish.

[Rose]
Not only did we win the game,

but the Fab Five scored
every point for Michigan.

[announcer]
Jimmy King scores for three.

[Howard]
They sent the message that,

hey, we're here
in college basketball

and we're here to stay.

And we have a special group

that you'd better
watch out for.

-You knew right then and there

that this was a seismic event
in college basketball.

You knew that everything
had changed.

-Prior to that, you had players
staying a lot longer.

So you had juniors and seniors
on teams who were stars.

It's only recently that you
need to start freshmen,

because a lot
of your better players

keep leaving for the NBA.

But these were--
You know, before them

were the days when you couldn't
go to the NBA so young.

So the idea of five freshmen
somehow being the best players

that you put out
was making a statement

that your seniors and your
juniors weren't that good.

[Bryan Burwell]
The upperclassmen,

let's face it,

they were not that thrilled

that they were being
pushed to the side.

-It was a very hard thing
for Steve Fisher to overcome.

I think one of the reasons

that he didn't want to start
all five of them.

was that he didn't want
to lose the rest of the team.

Because if you're
basically saying,

well, the youngest guys
on the team are the best,

what do they have
to play for?

[Jackson]
When we first got there,

you know, there was
some animosity.

I think they wanted to smack
us around a little bit.

Teach us a lesson,
you know?

I don't think they realized
we were up for the challenge.

-Ah!

[Rose]
Nothing as an upperclassman

makes you more upset than
playing behind a freshman.

I think they handled it
better than I would.

Michael Talley,

I played against him
in high school.

I had a lot of respect
for him.

Eric Riley, I knew that he was
second in the big ten

in blocks and rebounds
the year before.

James Voskuil
was a shooter.

And Rob Pelinka.

We used to joke with
Rob Pelinka and James Voskuil

and tell them that
one of the main reasons

for being on the team,

besides that they were
good shooters,

to help the team's GPA.

[laughs]

-I mean, anyone's going
to have resentment

if your boss brings in
some other people above you

and treat them so much better
than they treated you...

there was definitely
some resentment.

I can remember
talking with Eric Riley

when he lost his position.

It's-- You know,
you're 17, 18 years old,

and losing your job
to a freshman?

That's...

That's not easy.
That's not easy.

[man]
Good move, Jimmy.

-All of us had to just say,

Hey, let's not have this
be like

an us-versus-them
mentality.

Let's figure out a way
where we can sort of blend

what the upperclassmen
can bring with our, you know,

experiences of having won
a championship in 1989,

add those ingredients
to sort of the mix

of what you guys bring

with the talent
and the athleticism.

[Dutcher] I think it was
really hard on those kids.

These kids were
Mr. Basketballs

in their states.

So the ones that were
able to say,

"I know I'm not starting,

I can still contribute
and help win,"

were great value
to the program.

-You always were told
that you have to be patient.

You have to wait your time.

These guys came in and said,
"Now."

-No freshmen in the country
were good enough to start.

You know what I mean?

As far as the whole team.

So that was trendsetting.

The Fab Five let people know

it's not how old you are.

It's how you can play.

[announcer]
Webber drives and dunks!

[audience cheering]

He can do so many things.

[Burwell] All of a sudden,
you wanted to see them.

They were must-see
television.

[announcer]
Here's King with the ball.

And the dunk.

-I mean, it was a smack
in the head.

[announcer]
Bailey to the hole.

Slams it through!

Jalen Rose!

-Fab Five came in there
with their own rules

as a whole bunch
of young bucks

with quote, unquote,
no experience.

They ain't paid their dues,

and they're gonna come in here
brash and bold?

Who are these five
basketball player Muhammad Alis

with no résumé?

[announcer] He's marvelous
and magnificent!

Mr. Webber!

-Seeing somebody
close to my age

coming in with so much style.

Changing the game,
you know.

Five freshmen starting
and playing

and kicking ass.

-It was like a rock-star
mentality.

The whole nation gravitated
around these players.

-It was like going on
road trips with the Jacksons.

[Dutcher]
When we got off a bus,

we'd have to
cordon off an area

so we could just get
to the locker room

-before the game.
-Come on.

[Dutcher]
On the hotels on the road,

we'd have to post managers
at each end of the hallway.

We had to have 24-hour security
for a college basketball team.

-They were hilarious.
They were engaging.

They knew how to handle
the spotlight.

-Coach, Coach, Coach.

Now, how do you feel
when people say, you know,

your team is very
undisciplined?

How does that make you feel,
Coach?

-Well, one, I know our players
are undisciplined.

But two...

I think I'm the greatest
coach in the world.

And four, the only reason
we're here

is because of a great coach.

-All right, now,
can we all have $100?

[all laugh]

-Turn that camera off.

-Jalen was as entertaining
a basketball player

as you ever saw.

One of the great trash talkers
of all time.

[Rose]
Trash talking was 100%

a part of who I was
on every level.

I understood that the mental
aspect of the game

was just as important
as the physical.

I would do research
on people

and say nasty things to them

based on that research.

I was a student
of trash talking.

If I found out
your mom's name,

or something crazy
that happened

to someone in your family,

or something that happened
bad to you,

I'm trying to intimidate you.

I'm trying to have you upset.

[Jackson] I mean, we had
officials stepping in

telling us we couldn't
talk smack.

-Come here, come here.

There won't be any more talk,
and that's it.

We've called you.
No more talking.

They've been warned
about the talking!

-And the majority
of the smack talking,

let me be honest,

was motivation
for one another.

[audience cheers]

Like Jalen,
he can't check.

You get to the cup.

-Ray, lock him up.

Jam, knock down that three.

Juwan, you a technician
down low.

Chris, you're a beast.
Dunk on all of them.

-I grew up playing sports
in a black culture.

Talking trash was heralded,
acknowledged and appreciated.

Trash talking in sports,
originally,

from the playground,

was never about getting
in your face.

It was about getting
in your head.

And that's what these kids
were doing.

When they talked trash,

they were getting
in your head.

But it got distorted by people

who weren't really
that familiar

with what they were saying.

When you're not familiar,
you can be afraid.

-The cultural way that these
young African-Americans

were playing the game,

which was basically
a street game

transferred inside
Chrysler Arena

was not the way that alumni

were used to seeing
"Michigan basketball."

[King]
You got five black kids

from the inner city

who was at a university who...

prized themselves
on being very traditional.

And we weren't traditional.

We got nasty letters

from alumni Michigan
because of that.

[Fisher]
I had many letters

that were very racist in tone,

and made reference
to five guys,

using the N-word
more than once.

And proudly saying that
they were Michigan graduates.

[King]
These are from people

who went there
and cared a lot

about their school...

and felt like they needed
to voice their opinion.

And they voiced
their opinion.

"We don't want to see five
niggers on the court."

This is not, you know,

the Michigan way.

[Rose]
They were hate-filled, evil,

almost the devil's work.

Calling us niggers and coons,

and saying,
"Go back home."

[Jackson] I think those things made us
come together as a team.

People trying to break us down
from every angle, you know?

That brought us together.

[Howard] It taught us,
this is brotherhood.

This is time where we all
got to join together.

We came even closer
as a family.

[Fisher] Chris, that's the way
to run the floor.

Who's got it?

[indistinct shouting]

[Rose]
The perception of Coach Fisher

is that he let us
run over him.

And that was far
from the truth.

He just didn't discipline us
in the public forum.

He would do it
behind closed doors.

-The guy furthest away
should see it

and tell the other guy
who to pick up.

There is no wrong decision.

The only wrong decision
is not saying anything.

Turn it around.

You have 15 guys that are
under your tutelage.

And your job
is to help them grow.

We had structure.
We had discipline.

If you watched our practices,
we had control in terms of

what we did
and how we did it.

Stop! Stop! Stop!

[Watson]
The genius part of it

that a lot of people
didn't understand

was that Steve had to come up
with a system.

Make sure, man.

Make sure that you
see the ball.

[Watson]
So it's like,

"They're playing
playground basketball.

They're not organized.
They're not disciplined."

-People would say,

"They're rolling
the balls out and playing."

And that couldn't be
further from the truth.

But people that appreciated
the way they played said,

"Boy, they really
moved the ball.

"They share the ball.
They play selfless.

"They don't care who scores,
who doesn't score.

All they play is to win."

And I think anybody
that studied the Michigan team

and really paid attention
knew that they wanted to win

more than they wanted
to do anything else.

[narrator]
The Wolverines,

after the 1992
NCAA tournament,

looking for more wins.

They'd finish the regular
season at 20 and 8,

but received just a modest
six seed.

[Howard] We wasn't happy about
the sixth seed, first of all.

But you know what?

We were looking forward
to that.

We said, here's the time
right now to prove ourself.

To show everyone
what we all about.

This is the big stage
that we all dream of.

[narrator] The opening round
tipped off in Atlanta,

where the team had
an unlikely encounter

on the eve
of their first game.

[Howard]
We were staying in this hotel,

and I remember looking down
and I peeked,

and all of a sudden I see this
guy coming out of this room.

And guess who it was?

Muhammad Ali.

And I'm like, you know what?
That's Muhammad.

I'm freaking out.

And all of us, you know,
we're just so excited.

And we're trying to get down
to his floor

to say hello to him,
to shake his hand.

Maybe get an autograph,
take a picture.

-And he was a fan of ours.

Now, Muhammad Ali,
a fan of ours?

And we're going to get
a chance to meet him?

We go to Muhammad Ali's
hotel room.

We're sitting in the room
talking to the Champ.

And he knows our names.

He knows about ball.

He's talking to us about
being confident and cocky.

And shocking the world.

[narrator] Their first
tournament opponent

was John Chaney's Temple Owls.

And the Wolverines
grinded their way

to a seven-point victory.

[announcer] Michigan
is tanking aggressively.

-We're fortunate.

We're looking at Arizona
in the second game.

And they were upset.

So instead of playing
very high seed,

we get East Tennessee State.

And roll over them.

[audience cheers]

[narrator] After taking car
of East Tennessee State,

the Wolverines moved on
to the Sweet 16,

where they eked out
a three-point victory

over Oklahoma State.

Now, just one opponent
stood between

Michigan and the final four:

the Ohio State Buckeyes.

-We hate Ohio State.

Lawrence Funderburke.

Jimmy Jackson.

They had a great team.

We called them
the Ohio State [bleep]eyes.

[applause]

[narrator] The Buckeyes
had swept Michigan

in the regular season.

They were the Big 10 champs.

The number one seed
in the region.

It was the perfect opportunity
for the Wolverines

to make their biggest
statement yet.

[announcer]
Here's the toss.

The tap controlled
by Michigan.

[narrator] From the outset,
the pace was furious.

[announcer]
Chris Jent runs into traffic.

He shoots,
it's blocked by Webber.

[narrator]
The lead changed 12 times

in the opening ten minutes.

A back-and-forth battle

punctuated by moments
of mutual disgust.

[announcer] A technical foul
for hitting,

then Juwan Howard
with a technical foul

for mouthing off about it.

[narrator] With seconds to play
in the slugfest,

the Buckeyes had
one last chance

to win it
in regulation.

[announcer]
Pass to the right side,

deflected to Funderburke.

Loose ball on the floor.
Jent has it. He shoots.

He misses.
The ball is volleyed.

We have overtime!

[narrator]
And in OT,

Michigan seized control.

[announcer]
Good 16 for Rose.

[narrator]
Capitalizing on every opening

and attacking
from all angles.

[announcer]
Webber shoots.

He scores! He's fouled!

He'll have a free throw.

Michigan gets
a basket in one.

[narrator]
One year earlier,

Webber and Rose
had just announced

they'd attend Michigan.

Now, they had led
the Fab Five

to the brink of history.

-We fought and clawed
and scrapped,

and found a way
to win that game in overtime.

[announcer]
That's the game!

Michigan is going
to the final four.

to take on Cincinnati

in Minneapolis,
Saint Paul.

[Howard]
My paper Cabbage Patch.

I'm having fun,
I'm all pumped up.

I got my final four T-shirt on.

Just finished
cutting down the net.

Walking through the hallway,
I see the camera.

We gonna take it all!

I told you,
we gonna shock the world!

I told you we were
gonna shock the world.

I told you.
We're gonna shock the world.

We're gonna shock the world.

I was just so hyped, man.

-They come sprinting
into the locker room

with the chant,

"Cosby, Cosby."

-Cosby Show!
-Cosby Show!

[laughs]

-I'm gonna be
on the Cosby Show.

Gonna be on there.

-Before we played Temple,

Bill Cosby had sent a letter
complimenting our team,

saying he's a Temple alum,

and looking forward
to watching the game.

And then I added my own
little paragraph to the end.

-Bill Cosby faxed us a letter
and said,

-"If you beat my alumni..."
-Temple.

-"...that-- Temple,
that you--

"And go to the final four,

that you will appear
on the Cosby Show."

I didn't find out
till I got in the locker room.

that Coach Fisher had made up
that story.

Had made up that last part
of the letter.

And I was crushed.

-Being young and being
at this situation right now,

I really don't know
how it feels.

I mean, all of us are happy,

but we're not satisfied
right now.

And I think after
this is all over,

when we look back on it,

we'll realize
how fortunate we were.

[indistinct chattering]

-Tuck your shirt in.

Tuck your shirt in
and zip your jacket.

[narrator] Michigan arrived
in Minneapolis

as the talk of the final four

alongside Bobby Knight's
Indiana Hoosiers,

Bob Huggins'
Cincinnati Bearcats,

and, of course,
the reigning champs.

The red-hot Wolverines bested
Cincinnati in the semifinal.

[announcer] Here's King
with the ball and the dump.

[audience cheering]

[narrator] They hadn't lost
a game in over a month.

The five freshmen
who'd made headlines

by merely starting together

were now just one win away
from a national championship.

And after Duke beat Indiana
in the other semifinal,

the rematch was set.

[all, chanting]
♪ Hell, yeah ♪

-One more time!
One more time!

-♪ Hell, yeah ♪

-One more time!
One more time!

-♪ Hell, yeah ♪

♪ Hell, yeah ♪

[all cheering]

♪ Hell, yeah ♪

-There was no love lost
between either team.

The hatred was magnified
in the finals,

because everything
was on the line.

[announcer] Laettner gets it to Lang,
who dribbles to the corner.

It's wide and out of bounds.

Four turnovers
for the Blue Devils.

[narrator]
Duke struggled early.

With four turnovers
in the opening minutes,

Laettner sat down
and Michigan rose up.

[announcer 1]
On the rebound by Webber.

Chris Webber
had a thunder dunk.

[announcer 2]
Oh, no! Oh, my...

[announcer 1]
Raising the reverse shot.

[no audio]

[announcer]
Rose driving.

The alley-oop.
Tough shot by King.

[narrator]
Michigan took a one-point lead

into the locker room
at the break.

Their season had come down
to one final half.

[Rose] First half,
we played good basketball.

Stayed in the game.
We were executing.

We were playing hard.

In the second half,
they just smacked us.

They just took it up
to another level.

They played like
champions play.

[announcer] Running the middle,
it's four on two.

He gives it off. Wide open.
Laettner lays it in.

A great assist
to Bobby Hurley.

[narrator]
Laettner,

a non-factor
in the first half,

had sprung to life
in the second.

Michigan did their best
to keep it close,

but the Blue Devils
couldn't be stopped.

Duke scored on each of their
final 12 possessions.

as the deflated,
young Wolverines

watched their title hope
slip away.

[Fisher] When we knew we
weren't going to win the game,

the reality sets in.

And our players were...

were very,
very despondent.

-Hey, man, get those
mother[bleep] cameras

out of my face
if you don't want to hear

some [bleep]damn swearing
on mother[bleep] TV.

[continues shouting
indistinctly]

I said, get the camera
out of my face.

So all y'all want to see
is a mother[bleep] cry,

well, let the mother[bleep]
cry on TV.

I hope I got a lot
of mother[bleep] bleeps.

This is a mother[bleep] man.

[indistinct chattering]

I apologize
for all the language

and things like that.

But I'm human.

I'm not trying
to be Superman.

-I felt like we did at least
lose to a better team.

[no audio]

And, uh...

that was hard to swallow,

but I felt like we were gonna
get a couple more cracks at it.

Everybody says that,
but I really believed it.

-We knew that in May of '92,

we were going to make
a foreign trip.

Every four years,
we went on a foreign trip.

And it was diligently planned.

My wife was very involved
in the planning of the trip.

We thought it would be
great for the team.

Young kids,
an opportunity to practice

before the next season.

So it was well thought out.

-Who want to go to Europe?
That's not Detroit.

-Nobody wanted to go to Europe
but Steve.

[laughs]

But Steve was the head coach.

And I thought Steve made
a good decision.

He took them over there.

We got a chance to play
some top competition.

But the guys also got a chance
to see Europe.

-Even though we're out
of the country,

this is a great
experience for me, myself,

and for the team.

I think I might enjoy the trip
a little bit more

if we go out to the club
or something like that.

We spring the women.

-At the time,
we thought we'll probably have

a good first year.

You know, maybe if we're lucky
we'll make the tournament.

Maybe win a game,
get knocked out.

And so we thought the year
would probably not

go as long as it did.

Well, we went all the way

to the National
Championship game.

And the freshmen
wanted to go home.

They were tired.

But we don't.
We get on a plane.

We go to Europe
for 2 1/2 more weeks.

[Howard] We had just finished
the NCAA tournament,

and we just was not happy
with the fact

that we had to go to Europe
for 16 days.

And looking back on it,

we were very spoiled.

This place is awful.

Don't come back,

because you will not
enjoy it.

[man]
Hey, bros on the camera.

-You should be on camera
and ask me.

[Rose] I know I complained
the whole time.

And I'm pretty sure when
you interview everybody else

for this piece
and you ask them...

[laughs]
...they'll say that.

I'm what you call
the product of the environment.

I'm just saying it.

[Fisher] We have home videos
of that trip.

Everything from being
in San Marco Square

with the pigeons...

[indistinct chatter
and laughter]

...to all the little kids
walking up

and trying to find out
who this group of guys were.

[man] Excuse me, have you
ever heard of the Fab Five?

No, not really.

[man]
They're a new rap group.

They're very good.
They're from the States.

This is two of them right here.

[beatboxing]

-♪ Oh, yeah
One, two, three ♪

♪ Is the place to be, yo ♪

♪ I'm chillin' in Italy ♪

♪ One, two, three
Yeah, my breath don't stink ♪

♪ Yo, her name is Lina Eubanks
And you don't stop ♪

♪ I'm from the States... ♪

[Dutcher] I think if they
watch the tape,

they'll realize
how much fun they had

when they see themselves.

And to this day,
I don't know

if I've ever shown it
to any of them.

[laughter]

[indistinct chattering]

[Rose] The one thing
about the Europe trip,

it made us feel like pros.

It didn't make us feel like
college kids anymore.

And it made us start
paying attention more

to the business aspect
of the game.

[audience cheering]

Like, we're in Europe
playing against pro teams.

The stands are full.

Somebody's getting paid
this summer,

and it's not us.

[Burwell]
They come back as sophomores,

and from the very start
it was not:

"just go out and have fun."

It was, you have to not just
get to the final four,

you have to win the final four.

You have to dominate
every single night

you go out on the floor.

-If anybody on the team
thinks we're gonna lose a game,

whether it's Coach, a player,
or whether it's myself,

I don't want to be involved with
that person.

We don't have a team
that thinks that.

No one on our team thinks we're
gonna lose any game we play.

[reporter] When you see the
Michigan team out on the court,

you realize that the only
difference

between last year's team
and this year's team

is last year,
if they won it,

they would have
shocked the world.

This year, the only way
they're gonna shock the world

is if they don't.

[narrator] Exacerbating
the immense pressure

was their belief
that they were now cogs

in a moneymaking machine.

Baggy shorts, T-shirts,
trading cards.

Virtually anything featuring
the iconic block M.

-It's cute.

I might even
give it a try.

[narrator] As freshmen,
they felt excited.

As sophomores,
they felt exploited.

[Rose] I didn't feel like
a college kid anymore.

I felt like
a professional athlete

that wasn't getting paid.

I remember we were in Chicago
one time,

and we went downtown
to the Nike outlet,

and we walked past
the display.

It said, "Fab Five Nikes."

That's when you start realizing
having your own shoe

doesn't necessarily
put money in your pocket.

[Burwell]
Whatever Nike wanted to sell,

they threw it on
the Fab Five.

Black socks.

-I called one of my best friends
at the time

and asked him to bring me
a couple pair of socks up.

And he brought a pair
of black socks up.

And Juwan just gets excited,
like,

"Ooh, those black ones
are sweet."

-Don't tell anybody.

You can't tell family members.
You can't tell any coaches.

Don't tell any
of your girlfriends.

Don't tell anybody.

You put on your shoes
and socks in the stall

where nobody can see you.

You put on your warm-up pants

and you button them
all the way down.

We're going to keep
our warm-up pants on

until after they announce
the starting lineup.

We're going to snap off
the warm-up pants,

and the world is going to see
our black socks.

-You know, when I'm growing up,

if you went out on a basketball
court in black socks,

and you weren't 70 years old

and on a shuffleboard court
in Florida,

they would laugh at you.

Now, Nike,
because of the Fab Five,

makes wearing black socks

while you're playing basketball
fashionable.

[Rose]
When we started to realize

that everything we wore,
people were selling...

we started to protest.

And one of our
silent protests was,

wear plain blue shirts

that didn't say "Michigan,"

that didn't say "Nike,"
that didn't say anything.

That was our silent protest.

[narrator] The year after
the Wolverines

won their only title,
in 1989,

merchandise royalties
totaled $1.6 million.

Following the Fab Five's
freshmen season,

that number would climb
to a two-year total

of $10.5 million.

It was amateur athletics,
but business was booming

for everyone except
the Fab Five themselves.

[Jackson]
Perception of our lifestyle

that we were living
like rock stars.

We weren't living
that lifestyle.

That just wasn't
what it was.

We were eating cereal
some night, you know?

Cooking hot dogs.
That was our lifestyle.

We lived just like
every college student.

-I drove a green
Dodge Shadow...

that my mother gave me.

All right?

That's why it kills me
when they try to act like

we was getting it so big.

[King] The only perks
that we really got

were pooling our money
together to go to Taco Bell.

They recognized who we were
and gave us more tacos.

-Yeah, we played beer pong.

Yeah, we went to frat houses.

Yeah, we went to parties.

Yeah, we were doing

what all of the other
college kids were doing.

It just so happened

that we had to go
to practice the next day.

-The one thing I remember most
about the Fab Five

is how fun it was
to be around them,

away from the court.

If you had the good fortune
to be around them

and get to know them as kids,
as human beings,

other than just
basketball players,

I think the uniqueness,

the fact that they were
not phony.

You might not like
the way they played,

You might not like the way
they acted, but they were real.

-Juwan thinks he's
a light-skinned Billy Dee.

He thinks he's
a smooth operator.

-Oh, my God.
You raggin' on me, dawg.

-And there was a sense that

they were in
this thing together,

and it was fun to watch them
grow up and go together

those two years.

-I think in a cultural sense,

they represented the homeboys
and the homegirls

a little more than, you know,
the traditional beat riders

who, you know, a bounce pass
probably turns them on.

Not with us. It's dunks.

It's style and swagger.

And just their attitude,
you know?

They brought...

like, our attitude
to the court.

-It was all generational
and cultural.

If you were young
and black,

you were like,
"Those are my boys.

That's who I am.
That's me."

If you were old and white,
you were going,

"Oh, my God, the criminals
are taking over our sports

"and they're influencing
our children.

Get them away from the TV."

[all shouting]

[narrator] Mirroring
the Fab Five's ascent

was a rise in racial tensions

following the Rodney King
beating and L.A. riots.

Hip-hop was more popular
than ever.

And its most famous artists
were both socially conscious

and overtly violent.

The Fab Five
were no longer

just star athletes.

They were cultural icons
and media targets.

-The black shoes,
the ugly black socks.

It's the shaven head.

I mean, my head's shaven
because I have no choice.

But all of that really
has come back to haunt them

in the eyes
of a lot of people,

where they don't look
upon them as that clean-cut,

that all-American kind of guy.

-I think this is one
of the most overrated

and most underachieving teams
of all time.

These are guys who come in
and epitomize what is wrong

with a lot of basketball
players, in that...

[man]
Which is specifically, please?

...they think they're better
than they are.

They come along, they cruise,
they come in and say,

"We're Michigan, we're great
because everybody says we're great."

[Rose]
Media members would judge us

by more than just
how we played.

They would judge us
on how we dressed, you know.

He's listening to NWA.
He's listening to Ice Cube.

You know,
who is Big Daddy Kane?

Who is EPMD?
What is Naughty By Nature?

-What kind of music
you listening to

to get you in the mood
for this game?

-CMW. Compton's Most Wanted

Till Death Do Us Part.
Geto Boys.

-Dr. Dre.
-EPMD's greatest hits.

EPMD, Flex.

-They judged us off of
what they heard the music say.

Not necessarily
that we were kids

listening to music that
we liked, called hip-hop.

[reporter] You don't listen to
Mathis, Richie, or any of that?

-Never heard of them.
-[laughter]

-Rap music was...had to be,
to those journalists,

it had to be from Mars, man.

[reporter] You think you'd
recognize any of the groups

that those guys listen to?

-Well, only if Peter,
Paul and Mary

were still in vogue.

I think they've long gone
by the wayside.

-The Fab Five was the first
ones that come out and say,

"Yeah, this is our thing.

This is who we are."

That's what made me smile,
because they did it together.

We gonna make a statement,

and we gonna play ball
in a different way

that people ain't accustomed
to seeing.

-College athletes
in the early '90s

didn't have tattoos playing
for major college programs.

If you had a tattoo,
you was considered a thug.

If you had an earring,
you was considered a hoodlum.

I had both.
And I played in Michigan.

And I had a bald head.

Just so happened to have
black shoes,

black socks and long shorts.

So it wasn't a novelty.
It wasn't cute.

It was adding bad to worse

in a lot of people's
estimation.

And then I got in trouble.

The crack house incident.

[narrator]
In February of '93,

reports surfaced that Rose
had been present

during a Detroit drug bust

at the home
of a childhood friend.

The police had stormed the
house on a Sunday morning,

and found the star point guard
at his friend's,

playing video games
on the couch.

-When they come in the house,
we're laughing.

Like, I don't know what kind
of tips you guys got.

You know, like,

y'all wasting y'all time.

Then they start searching
one of the guys.

I remember it like it was
yesterday.

The cops said,

"We got rocks.

Whose house is this?
Let's go."

Everyone else got a ticket
for loitering

in a place where drugs
were stored.

But it wasn't a dope house.

I know what a dope house is.

I know what a crack house is.
Trust me.

I've walked past a few.

I know people that have been
inflicted by a lot of that.

Drug infusion came
in the mid-'80s.

I know about that drug game.

But I've never been
a drug dealer.

And that was not
a crack house.

-The way it was reported,

it was everything
from Jalen being a dealer

to being on drugs.

And it was front page
above the fold.

It was a lead story
on every news channel

accusing Jalen of being
at a crack house,

involved in drugs,
and on and on and on.

[Watson] It was probably
the first time in his life

that people doubted him
or felt that he was a fraud,

that he was just a typical guy
in the neighborhood

selling drugs,
playing basketball, whatever.

So, yeah, he was very hurt,
but typical of Jalen,

he used it as fuel.

[Fisher] Our next game was
at the University of Illinois.

And the Orange Crush
and that crew,

they were brutal on Jalen.

And they chanted...

[chanting]
"Crack house. Crack house."

And at first I'm thinking,

I know they're not
talking about me.

And Jalen...

as only Jalen could,

responded with one of the best
games of his career.

[announcer]
Rose down the lane.

And he winks at the crowd
as he goes by.

Rose, again down the lane.
And lays it in.

Having an outstanding
second half.

-And when I got
to the free throw line

they were saying
the Nancy Reagan chant.

"Just say no."

[announcer]
Jalen Rose with a chance

for his 14th point
of the night.

[Rose]
"Just say no." "Just say no."

There was a part of me
that was embarrassed.

There was a part of me
that was hurt.

But there also was a part
of me that felt like,

you know what?
I'm gonna embrace it.

I'm gonna be a dog about it.

[announcer] ...has to play
defense on Rose,

and Rose draws a foul.

[narrator] Rose administered
a ferocious attack,

punishing Illinois
at both ends of the floor.

[announcer]
Up and down low.

Has it swatted away
and taken away by Jalen Rose.

[narrator]
He played every minute,

grabbed eight rebounds,

and pulled in a game-high
23 points.

[announcer]
Jalen Rose, what a move.

[narrator]
Willing the Wolverines

to a one-point
overtime victory.

[Rose] You know,
as a 19-year-old kid,

you really need the support
of your brothers.

They made sure that I got
a chance to silence the crowd

as many times as I could.

-He performed.

Didn't let them
get under his skin.

And that's when I said
this kid is what I thought.

He got a toughness
about him that, you know,

it ain't gonna work.

[narrator] Michigan's 26-and-4
regular season record

earned them a number one seed
in the 1993 tournament.

But the road back to the final
four was a bumpy one.

They narrowly escaped
the second round,

overcoming a 19-point deficit

and winning with a last-second
put-back versus UCLA.

[announcer]
Pull up, jumper on balance.

No good. Rebound.

King, up and in
with one second remaining!

And Michigan moves on!

Oh, they have survived UCLA!

-I don't want any more games
like this.

If this brings experience,
I don't want any more new games.

I'll just be naive
and immature.

[narrator]
They then muscled their way

past George Washington
and Temple,

en route to a final four
showdown with Kentucky,

considered by many
the country's top team.

The Wolverines played
their best ball of the season

in an overtime victory
over the Wildcats...

and found themselves
back in the same position

they had been in
one year earlier:

playing for
the National Championship.

This time, the opponent
was North Carolina.

[Rose]
Going into the Carolina game,

that was ours.

We felt like we slayed
the dragon in Kentucky.

We played that
like a championship game.

All we had to do was do
what we were supposed to,

and we'd beat Carolina,

because we were a better team
and we knew it.

-Last year, as I said
many times,

was the lowest point
of our lives losing.

You know, this year, you know,
you reach your dream again.

-You'd be stunned if you didn't
come out here

with a championship,
am I right?

-I'd be crushed.

Crushed.

-Two years of that
would be...?

-It'd be unbelievable.
It'd be...

I don't know
how I would take it.

It would break my back.

[audience cheering]

[no audio]

[announcer] Inside,
high off the glass, good!

Off the glass, no.

Rebound, scores.

He's fouled.

[narrator]
Early on, North Carolina

outmuscled Michigan
at both ends of the floor

and jumped out
to a quick lead.

[announcer]
Back door slam.

Slam dunk by Lynch,
with the assist by Phelps.

Michigan not paying attention.

[narrator] But the Wolverines
would counter

with a run of their own,

behind the shooting
of Rob Pelinka

and the strength
of Chris Webber.

[announcer]
Off the rebound by Webber.

[narrator] At the break,
the Tar Heels led by six,

and play only intensified
when action resumed.

-The second half, it was like
a heavyweight prize fight,

where if you didn't take
a punch and deliver one back,

you could not survive.

[narrator]
As time ran down

Ray Jackson had hit
a clutch jumper

to cut the Tar Heel lead
to three.

Then, with 46 seconds to play,

Michigan took their final
time-out.

The coaching staff's last
chance to address the team.

[Rose]
It was reiterated.

It was noted an established
and discussed

that we didn't have
any time-outs.

-It was very clear.

-You tell them
there's no time-outs.

but who knows
where their minds are?

-There was just this dull roar.

You couldn't hear
yourself think.

And I was standing at the edge
of the time-out,

and I could hardly hear
what Fisher was saying.

So unless you were
three feet away,

you weren't going
to hear a thing.

[announcer 1]
He's out of bounds.

He's standing out of bounds.

He was on the sideline
when he caught the ball.

Reese is out of bounds.

Michigan has the basketball
and 45 seconds to go.

[announcer 2] This Michigan
club does not know how to die.

[announcer 1]
Here's Rose trying a three.

And it spins off.
No good.

Webber underneath.
Rebound, just scores!

[narrator]
Down one point,

Michigan was forced to foul,

sending North Carolina
to the line

with 20 seconds
remaining.

[announcer]
And remember,

the Wolverines
are out of time-outs,

so they cannot ice him.

Pat Sullivan,

the junior from Bogota,
New Jersey, at the foul line.

Twenty seconds left to play.

[audience cheers]

-Chris gets the rebound,

turns and looks for Jalen
for the outlet.

-Chris travels.

But they don't call it.

[announcer]
Michigan out of time-outs.

And Webber, front court.

Carolina thought
he traveled with it.

-Instead of going
straight up the floor,

he was veering
towards out bench.

[Rob Pelinka]
He saw the trap coming

and I think sort of like
a deer in the headlights,

just panicked a little bit
and dribbled into the corner,

which is what the Carolina
defense wants you to do.

-And as he pivots,

he calls time-out.

[announcer 1]
Webber, front court.

Carolina will--
He takes a time-out!

[announcer 2]
Technical foul.

[announcer 1]
They're out of time-outs.

Technical foul!
Technical foul on Michigan!

They're out of time-outs.

[King]
I was walking towards Chris,

like, what happened?

And then I heard Jalen say...

"He called time-out,
and we don't have any left."

[announcer]
It's a technical foul.

Two shots in possession
of the ball.

[King]
While he's bending over,

I got my hand on his chest,
on his heart,

holding him up.

And I could feel his weight
leaning on me.

[no audio]

The gravity of that moment,

it'll make you
just fall over.

-It almost was
suspended in time.

[announcer 1]
Shoots it, hits it.

[audience cheers]

[announcer 2] Maybe his finest
moment of this season.

[announcer 1]
Second shot counted.

[audience cheers]

[Pelinka]
It was like the whole world

just stood still.

It was like everything
went into slow motion.

[announcer]
Lynch throw is to Phelps.

Phelps flings the ball
in the air.

The Tar Heels'
third National Championship.

-Immediately after the game,

obviously I had my sorrow
for the loss.

But I'm also thinking,

this is my childhood friend

that, at 19 years old,

didn't make a mistake
in practice.

Didn't make a mistake where
only a couple were watching.

There were 35 million people
watching this game.

[indistinct shouting]

[Howard] There's a rumor
you kind of heard

time-out coming
from our sideline.

That someone from our sideline,
in our bench area,

has said,
"Hey, call time-out."

-When Chris and I talked
after the game,

and he was pretty devastated,

he said, "Coach,
somebody said time-out."

You know, he very clearly
told me

that he heard somebody
say it.

-He got confused,

because you got guys from
the bench calling time-out.

If it had been me
with the ball just like Chris,

I may have called
time-out too,

because I didn't hear
the coaches.

I didn't hear anyone
on the sideline say

we didn't have any time-out.

When he called time-out,

I honestly thought
we had a time-out.

[narrator] Chris Webber
declined to participate

in the making of this film,

but a closer dissection
of the play

reveals a member
of the Michigan team

signaling for Webber
to call a time-out.

-I could see that there is
immediate emotion,

as in, no,
that's the wrong thing.

What are you doing?

And I can see the opposite
in people clapping.

So...

[narrator] Among those
clapping is number 14,

Mike Talley.

[Eric Riley] There was more
than one guy, I know that.

It was like multiple
time-out, time-out.

And then when he realized
when he caught it

and he realized that it wasn't
a time-out,

he looked at the bench
and said,

"Why are you MF's
calling time-out?"

[Rose] We just lost
the National Championship

to a team that we were
better than.

We let one get away.

And I felt bad.

I felt bad for my good friend,
Chris Webber.

I felt bad for Coach Fisher.

[no audio]

[Fisher]
I'm the last one to come off,

and Jalen's waiting for me.

And put his arm around me
and told me he loved me

and said, you know,
"We'll be back.

We'll be back again, Coach.
Don't worry about this one."

He was thinking
not of himself,

but of somebody else.
in that moment.

And I think that's what made
Jalen special,

and I know that's what made
that team special.

-When we get
to the locker room,

Chris is laying facedown.

So it goes from now we lost
the National Championship game

to we got to pick up
our brother.

This is the moment that
everybody's been waiting for.

Now they have it.

We're wounded.

How do we respond?

-Bruce Madej, who was our
sports information director,

he came in to tell Steve who
the media wanted to talk to.

And Chris knew
he was going to be one,

so Chris turned to me
and said,

"Coach, I don't want
to talk to them."

So I said, "Chris,
I'll go in there with you."

I said, "You got to do this."

I said, "You got to do it
one time."

And as we walked back,

I mean, I could feel
his body trembling.

[reporter 1] Chris, when you
called that time-out,

right after that you looked
right at your teammates

on the bench.

Was anyone telling you
to call the time-out,

or did you hear, you know,
call a time-out at that point?

It seemed like you looked
a little confused

when you looked at the guys
on the bench.

-I don't--
I don't remember.

[reporter 2] Chris,
not to belabor the point,

but what was going through
your mind when it happened?

-There was 20 seconds left

and I started
dribbling the ball.

We're down by two.

Get on our side of the court,
I picked up my dribble...

and I called a time-out.

That was--

Whatever I did, that's what was
going through my head.

And it probably cost
our team the game.

[reporter 3]
Chris, you said on Sunday

that the loss to Duke
last year

was the lowest moment
of your life.

Is this worse?

-It's the same.

It's the exact same.

[Dutcher]
If anybody had a right

to make a mistake,
it was Chris,

because he was the guy
that led us there.

Now, we had other pieces,

but we don't go there
without Chris.

-That wasn't why
we lost the game,

and I said that to everybody.

It went unheard by Chris
at the moment,

but he was the reason
we got there.

[Rose] Parents normally
didn't ride on a team bus.

Chris's mom was on the team bus
with us leaving the arena.

And he sat next to his mom.

And he sobbed
the entire time.

-We never discussed it.

To this day,
I have not discussed

the time-out with him.

And...

when I talk to Ray and Jay,

we don't bring it up.

-I cried.

Because deep down in me,

I felt like it was over.

You know, I felt like
we would never

be together again
on the court.

We had plans
of coming out there,

all five of us
coming out together.

We're gonna win it,

and we're all going
to the NBA.

That was the goal.

For us not to win it,

that shattered some dreams.

The dream was over.

-Chris was in a hurry,

and he knew that he would be
the number one pick,

or pretty darn close.

I was with him once

when we walked past a store
in Ann Arbor,

and it had his jersey
hanging in the window.

And it was, I think,
$75 or something like that.

And he had just asked me
if I could give him money

for gas or pizza,
or something like that,

which I couldn't,
but he asked anyhow.

And he saw this jersey
in the window for $75.

It had the number 4.

And he said,

"They're selling that
for $75,

"and that goes to somebody,

and I have to borrow money
to put gas in my car."

And I remember
thinking to myself,

"He's not coming back here."

[Burwell] After Chris Webber
called that historic time-out,

he's walking out
of the Superdome,

and you knew it was
all about to change.

Within a week, he had declared
for the NBA draft

A year later, Juwan Howard
and Jalen Rose

join him in the NBA.

King and Jackson are out
a couple years later.

And at that point,
everybody figured

the story of the Fab Five
was over.

But we were wrong.
We were really wrong.

-Chris Webber has been indicted

on charges he lied
to a grand jury

about his dealings
with a Michigan booster.

-Webber allegedly lied
about receiving $280,000

worth of cash and gifts
from booster Ed Martin

during his two-year
college career.

-When I first started
recruiting for Michigan,

I went to a public league game
in Detroit.

And at the end of the game,
the players I'm watching,

they're out on the court
with an older gentleman

that's celebrating with them.

As a recruiter I'm thinking,
who is this guy?

Obviously, he knows
all these kids.

Well, it was Ed Martin.

-The godfather.

"Big Money" Ed,
as we called him.

He was a big fan
of Southwestern's program.

So if there was a player
on the team

that had busted gym shoes

or didn't have boots
in the winter,

"Big Money" Ed would make sure
that he had a pair of shoes.

-Poor people
in the Detroit community

aren't going to refuse
that stuff.

And so you can never keep track
of how many times

Ed Martin picked up a kid
or took him here or there.

While he was at the house,
maybe gave him something.

All stuff that technically,
by NCAA violations, you know,

probably breaks the rules.

But it was just the way
things were done in Detroit.

-The biggest misconception
was that Ed only looked out

for the players
that were the stars.

Ed looked out
for all of the kids.

And a couple of us
became stars.

[Watson] He said,
"I make over six figures.

"I'm retired from
Ford Motor Company.

"I'm an electrician.

I can work doubles
and triples."

So, you know, he went through
all of that,

and I saw nothing at all
wrong with his association

around kids and programs.

-In cities like Detroit,

when you're raised
like a lot of these kids

in our city have to be,
you're not worried

about breaking NCAA rules
in the future.

You're worried about
eating now.

You're worried about how you're
going to drive now,

what you're going to wear now,
do you have shoes,

do you have something nice to
wear if you're going on a date?

And you don't care
where it comes from.

And if somebody says,
"Remember me when you go to the NBA."

All right, yeah, sure,
okay, I will.

Thanks for the sneakers.
Thanks for the coat.

Thanks for the cake.

Thanks for the $100
for my birthday.

They don't
think of it that way.

And you or I wouldn't
think of it that way either

if it was just an uncle,
or an aunt, or whatever.

It's only when you mesh
college basketball into it,

and they bring all these rules
from the NCAA,

that suddenly you're doing
something heinous.

They don't even know
what heinous is, you know,

at that age.

[narrator] But Martin
was assisting players

with money earned
from an illegal gambling ring

he operated.

He was also investing
additional money

in some of the better players,

with the expectation they
would return the investment

if they reached the NBA.

Among them, Chris Webber.

-Now, what happened between
Ed Martin and Chris Webber

to this day remains a mystery,

because Chris won't
talk about it

and Ed Martin's dead.

But what you had the record of
before Ed Martin died,

and what you've heard
from other people around him,

was that he gave Chris
a significant amount of money

in exchange for, I guess,
a promise

that once Chris went pro,
he'd repay him in some way,

or keep him
in his inner circle,

or make him something
or another.

[Carl Martin]
You have to understand

my father's relationship
with Chris

was as close to a father-son
relationship

that you can have
outside of being that.

My dad always said,

"You don't make it, son,
no problem.

"If you make it,
I'm here.

"I looked out for you.

You can reciprocate when
you have the opportunity."

[narrator] Martin's arrangement
with Webber

was kept under raps
during the Fab Five era.

But by the mid-'90s,

he was paying several
Michigan players

and the operation
was no longer covert.

-It was the Wild West in terms
of money changing hands.

There's utter shamelessness,
it seemed like.

The places where they lived,
their lifestyle,

the coats they wore,

the coats their parents wore.

This kind of stuff.

If they're trying to hide it,

they did a really,
really bad job.

[Fisher] Michigan launched
an investigation,

and fired Steve Fisher
in 1997,

citing a lack of vigilance
in policing his own program.

-We have tremendous pride
in the legacy

that I will leave
in my tenure at Michigan.

We have taken
a basketball program

and built it into one of the
elite programs in the country.

The Right Way.

-[applause]
-The Right Way.

-You know, I think we were
naive during the time.

I don't believe
that any of the coaches

actually knew anything
during the time,

but I think they weren't
as aggressive

as they should have been
to try to find out.

I don't think,
as a university,

we were monitoring as carefully
as we could.

-Ed Martin was a target
of a federal probe.

And so you had the big boys
in here.

And some of the players
and other people had to go

talk before grand juries.

This isn't some guy
out of Kansas now

that you're talking about.

These are crimes.

And they wanted to know
where his money came from,

and his racketeering
and all the rest of the stuff,

who was involved?

-I ended up testifying

in front of the grand jury

because, just like Chris,

I knew Ed in high school.

So they wanted to know
my relationship with him,

and what was the extent
of the relationship?

And the reason
why I wasn't implicated

is because I told the truth.

While I was in college,
Ed did give me a couple grand.

He was somebody
that I could lean on

to give me a couple dollars
for the weekend.

To give me a couple dollars
to buy a pizza.

Couple dollars to go to a movie.

Couple of dollars to hang out
with my friends.

That's what it was more for.
For pocket change.

The thing that got Chris
in trouble for his case

is that they said
he lied to the grand jury.

-The 29-year-old
Sacramento King superstar

was indicted Monday on charges
he lied to a grand jury

about his association with
University of Michigan booster

and admitted bookmaker
Ed Martin.

Webber told the grand jury
repeatedly

that he did not take anything
from Martin.

This is how he explained
himself just over an hour ago.

-This case is about
a 60-year-old man,

65-year-old man,

who befriended kids
such as myself:

ages 14, 13 through 19.

Preying on our naivety,
our innocence.

Claiming that he loved us
and he wanted to support us.

Then later, wanting to cash in
on that love and support

that we thought was free.

-Why are you saying that someone
preyed on you

when you associate
with this person,

had a relationship
and asked for the assistance?

-After I saw that clip,

I was upset, hurt,
disappointed.

I knew that Chris was trying
to do what he could

to protect his backside.

But I think that kind of
threw a monkey wrench

in our friendship
for a while,

because I was pissed off

that he betrayed him
like that publicly.

I didn't think
Ed deserved that.

I didn't think his family
deserved it either.

So I was really upset by it.

[reporter]
U of M is punishing itself

for the transgressions
of former basketball players

Chris Webber,
Robert Traylor,

Maurice Taylor
and Louis Bullock.

U of M and the FBI believe

the four players
and their families

took more than $600,000
from booster Ed Martin.

[Mary Sue Coleman]
Once we knew

that more than $600,000
had been given to the players,

we understood it was
a very serious infraction

of NCAA rules.

And so we made the very
difficult decision,

and it was really--
It was really very, very sad.

--that we had to vacate
all those wins,

and that we had to take down
the championship banners

from Chrysler Arena.

In addition,
the NCAA instituted

the separation,
the ten-year separation,

the no-contact between
the players

who'd been implicated
in receiving money

and the university.

So we are not able,

because of this NCAA ruling,

to have any relationship
with those players

for this ten-year period

that ends in 2013.

-We got ourselves connected
with something

that was very,
very wrong.

When you talk about people who
are connected with gambling,

when you talk about paying

significant amounts of money
to players,

we need to take the strongest
measures necessary

to protect the integrity
of our institution.

[Jackson] The banner's taken
down from Chrysler Arena,

that was a crushing blow.

I felt like
in a time of crisis,

they didn't have our back.

They turned on us.

And not everybody
took money on that team.

I could see maybe possibly
trying to punish an individual

who did do that.

But the entire team?
Erase the whole memory?

That legacy is something

that should be upheld
and cherished forever.

-The reality is,
it's a team sport.

And the team wins together,
and the team loses together,

and the team is accountable
together.

And do I think it's fair
to them individually? No.

Do I believe it's the only way

we can handle it
institutionally?

Yes.

There are a lot of things
that we admitted

where we had
made mistakes,

could have done things better,
and we apologized.

What we're looking for
is the same thing from Chris.

Chris simply needs
to acknowledge

that he made a mistake,
made some mistakes,

some errors in judgment
as a youth.

Apologize for those mistakes.

And I believe that it would
have an enormous impact

on our ability to heal
this situation,

and move forward
in a very positive way.

c-For Chris just to say,

"I take full responsibility
for my actions.

"You know, at the time,
I didn't know it was wrong.

I do today,
and I apologize."

I think would be the right thing
for Chris to do.

And I think everybody
would welcome him back

to the University of Michigan
if he did so.

I would tell the good folks
at Michigan,

"Good luck with that one."

Because I don't think
he's ever going to apologize.

In his mind,
what's there to apologize for?

You got the bargain.

The arenas were full.

The TV contracts
paid you a princely sum.

What am I apologizing for?

-I watched the Fab Five
probably closer than anybody

during those two years
from the media.

If Chris Webber had
$200,000 or $300,000,

he must have buried it
in the backyard,

because he was constantly
crying poor, living poor,

driving a beat-up car
and all the rest of it.

My guess is the money that they
claim changed hands there

happened after Chris
declared to go pro,

but before he actually did.

Because who do you know
at 18, 19 and 20,

if they've got a couple
hundred thousand dollars,

isn't flaunting it in some way?

And I never saw that
in the Webber household.

I was in their house.
They live very, very modestly,

or in Chris's personal
lifestyle.

-I'm more upset
at the university

than I am at Chris.

I could never be upset
at Chris.

I mean, Chris played
his butt off

for the University
of Michigan.

You know, it's not like
he point-shaved.

You know, he played
his butt off.

We make mistakes.
So be it.

I love you as a brother,
you know.

Personal relationships
you have with your siblings.

It's going to be good and bad.

But we love one another
and we keep moving.

-I'm not going to say that,
you know,

one of my teammates
took some money,

and they made us pay

by taking our banners down.

I would say...

there...life is not fair.

There are sometimes reasons

that you will get penalized
personally

that may not even
be your fault.

But somehow,
you got to learn

how to deal with it
and move on.

[Mitch Albom]
They were a hurricane.

They came onto the scene
with those baggy pants

and pulled-up black socks.

They did not shy away
fro showmanship or controversy.

But if you look
at college basketball today,

what has endured?

They changed the way
college basketball looked.

And now, freshmen sensations
are no big deal.

But back then,
five of them on one team?

It was unheard of.

[King]
I feel like I'm probably

one of the most talented
players that ever didn't,

you know,
pan out in the NBA...

for sacrificing
at Michigan.

But...

even knowing what I know now,
would never do it differently,

because we built
something special

that wasn't seen before

and hasn't been
seen since.

[Howard] I didn't have
a brother growing up,

so when I went
to the University of Michigan

and played with these guys,
they became my brothers.

We've been brothers and family
members from day one.

-It's something that can't
be corrupted.

It can't be taken away
from us.

It can't be tarnished.

You know, I love those guys,

and it's something
I'll take to my grave with me.

[Rose] Our legacy
is that we were bigger

than the score of the game.

Did we want to win
two championships?

Yes.

But we didn't.

But tell me who won the
championship three years ago.

Tell me who won the
championship five years ago.

Tell me who was
the starting lineup

for the Carolina team
that beat us.

[Fisher]
The legacy, for me,

is a fantastic group
of young people

that are now a fantastic
group of adults.

When I have a great win,

inevitably I'll get a call
from one or two of them.

When we have a tough loss,

I'll get something.

"Hang in there, Coach.
You're doing a great job."

[indistinct chattering]

The love is still there.

But that is the legacy that
I will have for all of them.

-Yeah, I'm playing
with the Miami Heat.

I'm playing with LeBron James,
D. Wade, Chris Bosch.

They don't say, "There's Juwan
Howard with the Miami Heat."

"There's Juwan Howard
from the Michigan Fab Five."

And that right there
lets you know

that that legacy
is here to stay.

It hasn't gone anywhere.

[no audio]

[no audio]

[Rose] We're brothers,
and we'll always be brothers.

They made me who I am.

And I know,

regardless to whatever happens
in my life...

beyond family

that have the same blood...

that is close as I will get
to blood brothers.