NBA Pro Jalen Rose honored with Community Champion Award at Annual Black Enterprise Magazine Business Conference
Jalen Rose, Detroit native, ESPN analyst and one of the legendary “Fab Five” basketball phenoms at the University of Michigan in the early ’90s, will be presented with the Community Champion Award at the 2009 Black Enterprise Small Business Awards Luncheon, hosted by Ariel Investments at the Black Enterprise Conference hosted by General Motors and ExxonMobil, held May 17-20, 2009 at the Detroit Marriott at Renaissance Center in Detroit, Mich.
Jalen Rose, a noted philanthropist and a broadcaster and analyst for ESPN/ABC, is being recognized for positive contributions to the Detroit community through The Jalen Rose Foundation, which Rose founded in 2000, the same year he won the NBA’s Most Improved Player Award and helped lead the Indiana Pacers to the NBA Finals. In 2007, The Jalen Rose Foundation passed the $1 million mark in charitable contributions, when it contributed $240,000 to help fund the Jalen Rose Endowed Scholarship at his alma mater, the University of Michigan. In addition to creating higher education opportunities for inner city students, the foundation has help to support the development of a children’s hospital in Congo, Africa, and victims assistance programs for those affected by Hurricane Katrina and the 2004 tsunami disaster in Asia. Highlights of Rose’s 13-year NBA career included being part of the Indiana Pacers team that went to three consecutive Eastern Conference Finals, winning the East in 2000 and facing and ultimately falling to the Los Angeles Lakers for the NBA Championship. Rose concluded his NBA career with the Phoenix Suns, which made it to the Western Conference semi-finals in 2007. Since retiring from the NBA, Rose–a mass communications major at University of Michigan who ultimately earned his bachelor of science degree from the University of Maryland University College–has aggressively and successfully built a career as a sports broadcaster and studio analyst, while pursuing interests ranging from fashion and music to film and politics.
