The basketball Fab Five is one of the most famous group of collegiate players to ever grace the basketball court. Whether you heard of them or not this article will go over who the Fab Five were and what made them so special to the sport of not only College basketball but also the ranks of the Professional Basketball players as well.
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The Fab Five as they became known were made up of five college basketball players who all played for the same team. The university of Michigan was that team and they got this nickname The Fab Five in the 1990′s. In college basketball the coach of the team must go around the country and actively seek out and recruit or convince high ranking gifted high school basketball players to come to their college.
The Michigan men’s basketball coach at the time was Steve Fisher who was tasked with recruiting the team. For the 1991 college basketball season Michigan had 5 of the best high school athletes on their team.
The Fab Five at first rejected the nickname given to them by sports writers and sports commentators and instead wanted to be called 5x or five times. That name never stuck and instead they have now accepted the nickname they were originally given. The question is why the Fab Five anyway?
Fab is short for Fabulous and since this quintet included some of the elite players from around the country it was easy to see why they were called Fab. The recruiting class included Chris Webber, Juwan Howard, Jalen Rose, Ray Jackson and Jimmy King. This freshman class propelled the University of Michigan team into the top tier of the college basketball division as well as appearing in two NCAA Men’s Basketball Championships in 1992 ans 1993.
This collection of players not only were elite players but they were also ratings powerhouse. The two NCAA finals they appeared in were two of the highest rated finals in college basketball history. The Fab Five changed fashion as well. They wore baggier longer than usual shorts on court as well as wearing black socks. Both of which were imitated in the NBA as well as the rest of the college basketball community.
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