Jalen Anthony Rose (born January 30, 1973) is an American sports analyst and former professional basketball player. In college, he was a member of the University of Michigan Wolverines' "Fab Five" (along with Chris Webber, Juwan Howard, Jimmy King, and Ray Jackson) that reached the 1992 and 1993 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship games as both freshmen and sophomores.
Rose played in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a small forward for six teams, most notably alongside Reggie Miller on the Indiana Pacers team that made three consecutive Eastern Conference finals and reached the 2000 NBA Finals. He retired in 2007 with a career average of 14.3 points, 3.8 assists and 3.5 rebounds per game.
Rose was a sports analyst for ABC and ESPN. He was an analyst on NBA Countdown and Get Up!, and he co-hosted the ESPN talk show, Jalen & Jacoby, with co-host David Jacoby until late 2022. He is also the founder of the Jalen Rose Leadership Academy and the author of The New York Times best-seller Got to Give the People What They Want and producer of the ESPN documentary The Fab Five.
Rose was born in Detroit, Michigan, to Jeanne Rose and Jimmy Walker, who was a No. 1 overall draft pick in the NBA who became a two-time NBA All-Star. Jeanne Rose created Jalen's name by combining his father's name, James, and his uncle's name, Leonard. As a result of Rose's prominence in the NCAA and NBA, Jalen became one of the most popular names for African-American boys born in the 1990s and early 2000s. A number of notable American athletes who began play in the 2010s are named Jalen, after Rose, including Jalen Hurts, Jaylen Brown, Jalen Brunson, Jalen Green, Jalen Johnson, Jalen Suggs, and Jaylen Waddle. In 2021, there were 32 players with some variation of the name Jalen on rosters in the NBA, NFL, and other North American professional sports, with an additional 80 who played men's college basketball.
Jalen never met his father in person, although they eventually spoke several times over the phone. Walker died in July 2007 of lung cancer.
Rose was a star athlete at Southwestern High School in Detroit. His teammates included future NBA players Voshon Lenard and Howard Eisley. He appeared in the documentary film Hoop Dreams at a high school All-Americans camp.
Rose attended the University of Michigan where the Wolverines reached two NCAA Finals games in 1992 and 1993, finishing as national runners up both times. Rose was a part of Wolverines coach Steve Fisher's legendary 1991 recruiting class, dubbed the "Fab Five." He led the Fab Five in scoring his freshman year, averaging 17.6 points per game, and set the school freshman scoring record with 597 total points. While he did not win an NCAA title, he racked up over 1700 points, 400 rebounds, 400 assists, and 100 steals. At 6 ft 8 in and playing as a versatile point guard, some reporters started comparing Rose to his childhood idol Magic Johnson. Of the players called before the grand jury (Robert Traylor, Webber, Rose, Maurice Taylor, and Louis Bullock) in the University of Michigan basketball scandal, Rose was the only one not listed as having received large amounts of money. When questioned by the grand jury, though, Rose confessed to having received money from Martin. He said that it was only occasional gifts of a couple hundred dollars in spending money.
Rose was selected 13th overall by the Denver Nuggets in the 1994 NBA draft. He averaged 8.2 points and 2.0 rebounds per game in 81 games (37 starts) for his rookie season. He averaged ten points and 2.7 rebounds in 80 games (37 starts) for his second and last season in Denver.
After two years with Denver, Rose was traded to the Indiana Pacers, along with Reggie Williams and a future first round draft pick, for Mark Jackson, Ricky Pierce, and a 1st round draft pick.
Despite his successes in Indiana, he was not readily accepted early on. Rose frequently logged DNPCDs (Did Not Play – Coach's Decision) under Coach Larry Brown. Rose also often spoke out about the fact he was being used as a backup two-guard and small forward over his preference, which was point guard. It was not until Larry Bird took over coaching duties did Rose finally begin to blossom, eventually realizing he was most effective at small forward.
As a member of the Indiana Pacers, Rose helped the team get back on its feet after a disastrous 1996–97 season and make it to three consecutive Eastern Conference Finals appearances. Rose became the first player in eight years other than Reggie Miller to lead the Pacers in scoring in the 1999–2000 season when he averaged 18.2 points per game for the eventual Eastern Conference Champions, winning the NBA Most Improved Player Award in the process, the first time in Pacers history. During the 2000 NBA playoffs, Rose scored 40 points during Indiana’s Eastern Conference Semifinals Game 1 win over the Philadelphia 76ers. After winning that series, and helping lead his team all the way to the 2000 NBA Finals, Rose went on to average 25 points per game in the six game series, including a 32-point effort in a game five win. However, the Pacers lost the series to the Los Angeles Lakers. This playoff series is also remembered for Rose intentionally placing his foot underneath Kobe Bryant in game 2, while Bryant was landing back to the ground after shooting a jump shot, in an effort to cause Bryant injury (which Rose later admitted to intentionally doing). Bryant would miss Game 3 of the series due to an injury after landing on Rose's foot.
During the 2001–02 season, Rose was traded to the Chicago Bulls along with Travis Best, Norman Richardson, and a future second round draft pick in exchange for Brad Miller, Ron Mercer, Ron Artest and Kevin Ollie. On March 16, 2002, Rose scored a career-high 44 points and hit a game-winning shot during 114–112 overtime win against the Houston Rockets.
After 16 games in the 2003–04 season, Rose was traded to the Toronto Raptors, along with power forwards Donyell Marshall and Lonny Baxter. On January 22, 2006, Kobe Bryant scored 81 points while being defended by Rose, the third-greatest scoring performance in NBA history (behind Wilt Chamberlain's 100 point game and Bam Adebayo's 83 point game).
On February 3, 2006, midway through the 2005–06 season, Rose was traded, along with a first-round draft pick, and an undisclosed sum of cash (believed to be around $3 million), to the New York Knicks for Antonio Davis, where he was reunited with Larry Brown, his coach for one year with the Indiana Pacers. The motivation behind this trade was apparently to free up cap space (Rose earned close to $16 million a year) and to allow the Raptors to acquire an experienced center who could relieve some of Chris Bosh's rebounding duties. Rose's final game and contribution for the Raptors was a home win against the Sacramento Kings, where he scored the winning basket in overtime.
On November 3, 2006, Rose announced he would sign with the Suns. On November 7, it was officially announced that Rose had signed a $1.5 million one-year deal with Phoenix.
Rose retired from the NBA in 2007 with a career average of 14.3 points, 3.8 assists and 3.5 rebounds per game.
Post-NBA career and broadcasting
Rose worked as a Sideline Reporter for the 2006 NBA Playoffs for TNT. From his retirement in 2007 until 2023, Rose has worked at ABC/ESPN, first as an analyst on SportsCenter and in 2012 he became one of the hosts for NBA Countdown. Rose has also worked on ESPN's Grantland.