ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) – Michigan's Fab Five reunited and attended an on-campus basketball game for the first time since attending three decades ago, watching the Wolverines beat Ohio State 73-65 on Monday.
Chris Webber and Jalen Rose have had disagreements, including over the narrative of the NCAA scandal that led to the removal of two Final Four banners from the Crisler Center rafters.
It drove childhood friends and college teammates apart and resulted in Detroiters not even speaking to each other when they were in the same place.
“If you're going to cry at someone's funeral, you might as well get along with them while they're still alive,” Rose told the Associated Press at halftime of the game.
Webber and Rose settled their feud in 2021 and recently held talks to rebuild their relationship.
“I think it's no secret that Jalen and I had to get together. We did,” Webber said. “It obviously had to happen and this allowed us to be together today, so we are happy to support Juwan.”
Juwan Howard's serious health crisis motivated the duo to team up with Jimmy King and Ray Jackson to support Michigan's struggling basketball coach, four months after he underwent heart surgery while losing five games.
“C. Webb and I are of one mind and of one mind, we break bread as we should as brothers,” Rose said. “Most importantly, Juwan deserves this.
“If there was a single reason we were on the same page at the same time, it was because I was in Ann Arbor, Michigan, watching my brother Juwan Howard lie on a stretcher about to undergo open-heart surgery was standing.”
After Michigan defeated the Buckeyes, the five former teammates posed for photos at center court.
“It was a special moment,” Howard said. “I assume this won’t be the last time.”
Webber said the last time he attended a Michigan home basketball game, he was an NBA rookie during the 1993-94 season while his four former teammates were in their junior seasons.
“It's great to be back,” said Webber, sitting on Michigan's bench alongside Rose, King and Jackson courtside across from Howard.
Webber was forced to stay away for a long time, and when he returned for a game, Jim Harbaugh invited him to a football game in 2018.
The NCAA in 2002 ordered Michigan, along with several other former players – none of the Fab Five – to distance themselves from Webber for a decade because a federal investigation found that the now-deceased Ed Martin paid them more than $600,000 as students -dollars had given.
In the NIL era, college athletes make a lot more money from boosters.
“I’m happy to see that guys can make money off of their image and likeness,” Webber said.
That was against NCAA rules when the Fab Five swaggered and took college basketball by storm in the early 1990s, making baggy shorts and black socks popular on basketball courts from coast to coast.
The governing body banned the Wolverines from postseason play for a year, revoked their scholarships and placed the school on probation for “one of the most serious violations of NCAA law in the organization’s history.”
Michigan took down the 1992 and 1993 Final Four banners, wrapped them in plastic and stored them behind a locked door on the bottom shelf of a narrow cage near other artifacts such as Civil War diaries in its historic library
While Webber said he didn't have a chance to think about the banners while standing under where they used to hang, Rose had a lot to say.
“It would be great if Michigan considered dropping the Fab Five numbers,” Rose said. “Or a banner with all our numbers on it.”
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AP College Basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-basketball-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-basketball