Scoop B Radio: Checking In With Jalen Rose

Nabbed as 13th pick by the Denver Nuggets in the 1994 NBA Draft, Jalen Rose enjoyed a 13-year NBA tenure with career averages of 14 points per game, an NBA Finals appearance with the Indiana Pacers and was named the NBA’s Most Improved Player in 2000.

Now retired, along with being a dad and his ESPN duties, he’s head of the Jalen Rose Leadership Academy charter school in Detroit.

He and I chatted about his book, Got To Give The People What They Want.

Check Out Jalen Rose & Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson On Scoop B Radio

In the book, he digs deep going as far back as his high school days at Detroit Southwestern, where he played alongside future NBA stars Voshon Lenard and Howard Eisley.

“It’s an insight on what makes me tick,” Rose told me. “You may see me on ESPN’s NBA Countdown, but people don’t know what makes me tick.”

Rose’s book also details his relationship with his grandmother who he credits as his biggest supporter, highlights his reverence for Larry Bird and Isiah Thomas, both of whom coached Rose during his days as an Indiana Pacer. He also delves into what it’s like to be a second generation ballplayer despite never meeting his father Jimmy Walker, an All-Star who played in the NBA for seven years. Walker died in 2007.

Despite that, Rose counts many in his tight knit family that served as positive role models. They include his mother who raised him alone while working at Chrysler for 20 years, and his grandfather who owned a grocery store in Bainbridge, Georgia. “He was my first illustration of cool,” Rose said of his grandfather. “He was always well dressed, wearing a pea-coat, wearing nice hats and he was an entrepreneur at a time when our country was a lot different as it related to what we could do as people of color.”

Rose expects his readers to enjoy his insight and more importantly the experience. At the same time, he wants people to simply get to know him through everything he’s seen through the years and in the end know he’s just like everyone else.

“I am that kind of guy that when I walk into a room I speak to everybody,” Rose said. “How you doing? What’s going on? Hugs and kisses and dap whether I’m at the barbershop, on the airplane, that’s just something that I’ve adopted.”

Check Out Jalen & Jacoby Discuses Samaki Walker’s Interview with Brandon Robinson CBS

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Brandon Robinson

Brandon 'Scoop B' Robinson is a managing editor and columnist at RESPECT Magazine. Follow him on Twitter: @ScoopB and Instagram: @Scoop_B. As a 12 year old, he was a Nets reporter from 1997-1999, co-hosting a show called Nets Slammin' Planet with former New Jersey Net Albert King and Nets play-by-play man Chris Carrino. He's also been a writer and radio host at CBS and a staff writer at The Source Magazine. He's a graduate of both Eastern University and Hofstra University. You can catch him daily on the Scoop B Radio Podcast. Visit ScoopBRadio.com to listen. For inquiries and to contact Brandon 'Scoop B' Robinson visit ScoopB.com