Comments on: PistonPowered Book Club: Fab Five by Mitch Albom

By: Jacob

Jacob — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 15:41:49 +0000

Fab Five was one of the first “adult-level” sports books I read when I was younger – at the time I loved it and loved those 5 players. I’m a big Mitch Albom fan for the books he’s written since, but Fab Five was the first. It was so intriguing to read about those 5 players’ backgrounds, how they came together, how they changed the UM basketball program, and really how they affected the landscape of college basketball forever. This might sound counter intuitive but I think the book is even more meaningful now because of the Ed Martin scandal. You can look at it through the lens of the Fab Five’s image, youth, fame, and how that transcended college basketball without the elephant in the room that was the scandal. Regardless of how it’s perceived now, this book will always hold a special place in my life as a sports fan.

By: MrHappyMushroom

MrHappyMushroom — Sun, 07 Aug 2011 23:52:03 +0000

It’s funny what memory blips come to mind when recalling something from the semi-distant past. As a nominal Michigan fan, I watched those two runs to the championship game pretty closely. At the end of the day, I have three distinct memories about the Fab Five, and two involve Webber.

The non-Webber image is of an absolutely thunderous flying dunk by Jimmy King off an alley-oop. I think it was against Temple and during the sophomore year. Temple was taking it to Michigan early, but Michigan had righted the ship. The King dunk seemed at the time to mean game over, (though it was probably still a close game). I’m curious if anyone recalls this.

Webber number one is a sort of run of the mill dunk, possibly off of an offensive rebound. I’m not sure if this makes sense, but I recall marveling that Chris Webber was probably faster in moving the ball from his waist to the rim as any player in basketball history. It was a blink-and-you’ll-miss it moment.

And, of course, the time-out scenario…Of course, the time out shouldn’t have mattered, since he also took a couple of steps after grabbing the rebound. This was a meltdown of epic proportions.

At the time, I mentally created my own Tank McNamara comic (I can’t draw), something to the effect of “Today’s Youth Emulate Their Favorite Basketball Stars”. In frame one, a ten year old executes a smooth behind-the-back pass, a la Magic; in the second, another cooly swishes a twenty-five footer, as he dreams of being Larry Bird; in the third, as he bases his game on Webber, a kid is frantically screaming “TIME OUT! TIME OUT!” as others look on perplexed. (Guess you had to be there…)

By: detroitpcb

detroitpcb — Sun, 07 Aug 2011 17:14:32 +0000

You know, Chris Webber is a very smart man, very bright and articulate, and because of his passing skills and vision on the court it is difficult to question his basketball intelligence. But Chris Webber’s basketball intelligence failed him in every defining game of his career from that terrible timeout to those losses to the Lakers. I suppose you could rather say it was a failure of will, that Weber lacked the will to impose his intelligence on the game in decisive situations but i think the intelligence itself needs to be questioned. The timeout call alone suggests that it was not just a failure of will but a lack of awareness. And despite all of his physical skill and ability, Weber never really developed a patented go to move in the post – that little flip of his notwithstanding – and certainly never developed a go -to counter move. For that reason alone i question his basketball intelligence. The truly great players always added something to their game every offseason. Think of Magic and the development of his three point squat shot or his use of the baby hook in the post. Weber never did that type of work on his game. He relied on his physical skills which I admit were considerable. Maybe he was just lazy. Intelligent but lazy. Whatever you label it, you cannot say he had a great career. Good to very good, yes. But he never even approached great.

By: Patrick Hayes

Patrick Hayes — Sun, 07 Aug 2011 15:41:11 +0000

Josh, you're right, it would be very easy to go into the flaws of this book, namely that Albom had unprecedented access to that team and the program and missed probably the biggest scandal in Michigan history.

I think that the book has been around so long and is generally regarded at this point not as a piece of journalism, but as a piece of propaganda. And honestly, I'm cool with that. It's still entertaining to read and I think most people long ago realized Albom is more fable/life lesson writer than journalist. Who knows why he missed that story. Maybe he was complicit in covering it up in return for the access he received, maybe he just plain doesn't have the hard news instincts to see something like that going on. It would be an interesting question to ask him, but based on his reputation, I doubt he'd address it in any meaningful way.

Still though, the book isn't useless. The Fab Five's importance to basketball has more to do with them as individuals, their style, etc. The book is still interesting from that standpoint.

By: josh

josh — Sun, 07 Aug 2011 14:29:09 +0000

You don’t have to be a bitter Michigan State fan to critique Albom strongly over centering his book around something that he got grotesquely wrong (Chris Webber wasn’t for sale). Whether you blame ignorance, incompetence, or deception, it strongly weakens the credibility of anything in that book. You tip a cap to that briefly but that’s quite the quick wash.