Source: Michigan Today
Jalen Rose was the commencement keynote speaker on May 2. (Photo by Connor Titsworth, Michigan Commons.)
Jalen Rose was the commencement keynote speaker on May 2. (Photo by Connor Titsworth, Michigan Commons.)
Paging Julius Erving: There’s a new Dr. J in the house, and his name is Jalen Rose.
On May 2, Rose, a member of U-M’s Fab Five from the early ’90s, received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree at U-M’s spring commencement. The milestone helped him deliver on a promise he once made to his late mother.
“I used to tell her I was going to be Dr. J,” Rose says of NBA legend Erving, who transformed professional basketball in the 1970s. “I didn’t make it to the level of his greatness as a player, but I finally found a way to fulfill that goal.”
The newly minted doctor spent 13 years in the NBA and has fulfilled countless other goals along the way, as a sports analyst, educator, philanthropist, multimedia creator, and, most recently, actor and DJ.
During his commencement address, Rose told graduates assembled at Michigan Stadium that he has long considered himself a “Michigan Man” but recognized that term may be limiting.
“I’m going to broaden it,” he said. “To make the term representative of all of us. I propose that ‘Michigan Man’ simply becomes ‘Michigan.’ I am Michigan. We are Michigan.”
