Jalen Rose wants you to know that when it comes to the gangster side of Detroit, he was there. Rose clapped back smoothly at a Twitter troll who came for his appearance on the BMF series season 2. When a Twitter user posted, “Jalen Rose in BMF is hilarious,” he responded, “I lived it. Ask your Uncles.”
That was a Jalen Rose version of shade.
What Does Hoops Analyst Jalen Rose Have To Do With BMF?
For Rose, playing himself next to a young version of Big Meech was a full circle moment, as when he was an aspiring basketball player in Detroit, he watched the 50 Boys become the future infamous Black Mafia Family. In the late ’80s, when Demetrius and Terry Flenory were carving out their territory in Detroit, a young Jalen Rose bypassed high school basketball powerhouse Cooley High School, opting for Southwestern High School in southwest Detroit.
The move, which was supposed to take him away from the harsh environment, landed him in the realm of the then-50 Boys, precursor to the Black Mafia Family, while becoming a basketball star at Southwestern. Subsequently, the spoils of being a ball player connected to drug dealers were aplenty, with the Flenory brothers taking him shopping and celebrating heartily after his wins.
When Rose was changing the game as a member of the Fab Five in the early ’90s at the University of Michigan he stayed in touch with Meech, and by 2004 when the Detroit drug dealer held his audacious Meech of the Jungle party in his new hub of Atlanta, Rose attended. From live animals, including tigers, elephants, zebras, and naked women with bodypaint, along with celebrities galore, Rose basked in the success of himself and his former quasi-benefactors from home.
Jalen Rose Comes Full Circle In 50 Cent BMF Series
Now, playing himself alongside Demetrius Flenory Jr., aka Little Meech, who plays his father on the show, Rose wants everyone to know he’s been outside for a long time. He recently compared himself and the things he went through as a young player with ties to the streets to the current debacle experienced by Ja Morant.
“I am Ja Morant,” Rose said on NBA Countdown. “You guys got a chance to see me grow up for public consumption since 1991. I’ve been involved in drug raids. I’ve survived assassination attempts; I’ve been that undisciplined young person that was trying to figure out how to be famous, how to be successful, and how to change the dynamics of my family.
“What I had to learn is that people come into your life for four reasons: to add, subtract, multiply or divide; you have to choose wisely. He has way too much to lose. Trust me, I’ve been that young player carrying a gun; when you start waving it that can get you killed.”
When Jalen Rose proclaimed that he lived through BMF in real life, believe him but know that his life is no longer that, as he took the path toward positivity. However, like us all, nostalgia about our past exploits is always a fun game to play, especially when it’s on a top-rated premium cable television show and you’re not watching it from prison.
