Former Michigan star Jalen Rose takes issue with the “Fab Five” nickname widely given to the U.S. gymnasts by who he calls the “lazy” media. The same nickname was given to Rose and his four fellow freshmen on the Wolverines’ 1991-92 basketball team.
“It’s no fault at all of the young gymnasts,” Rose told a Detroit radio show. “But I really wish (the media) would have come up with an even more creative tag for them and their gold medal pursuit.”
Rose was granted the trademark for “Fab Five” last year, according to the website for the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. But we’d like to point out to Rose that the “Fab Five” nickname for the Michigan basketball players could also be labeled lazy journalism considering its similarity to the “Fab Four” nickname of The Beatles.
In an email to Bloomberg’s Scott Soshnick, USA Gymnastics spokeswoman Luan Peszek said her organization would use “Fierce Five” as a catchphrase for the quintet of U.S. gymnasts.
Soshnick writes that a Google search of the term “Fab Five gymnastics” yields almost 1.6 million results, while “Fierce Five gymnastics” yields 931,000.
While Rose does have the law on his side, it’s worth pointing out that Michigan never won an NCAA title while the U.S. gymnasts won gold by a whopping margin.
Maybe Rose, Chris Webber, Juwan Howard, Jimmy King and Ray Jackson should be the ones looking for a new nickname. Jalen Rose profile
