Jalen Rose came under heavy criticism recently when he said he believes Kevin Love only received an invite to play for Team USA at the Olympics because he is white. It does not sound like Rose’s opinion has changed, but the NBA analyst has issued an apology.
Rose said on his “Jalen and Jacoby” show last week that Love’s inclusion on Team USA is “tokenism,” as he believes Team USA is afraid of sending an all-black team to the Olympics. He later apologized in a lengthy Instagram video
“You don’t have to like my opinion, you don’t have to like me. There’s a lot of people trying to assassinate my character or whatever, but those people, some of them, have been doing to for like 30 years … that’s how it is when you have the nerve in a lot of peoples’ estimation to be outspoken,” Rose said, as transcribed by Ryan Gaydos of FOX News.
“But you know why I’m apologizing right now? To the game. Because I’m what the game made me,” he added. “I was raised by the all-time greats and you know what I would never want to do? Disappoint [Rose’s late mother] Jeanie Rose or disappoint the all-time greats that raised me.”
Rose failed to mention last week that the United States sent an all-black team to the Rio Olympics in 2016, and that team won a gold medal. The 2000, 2004 and 2008 Olympic teams were all also all-black. He insists he was aware of that.
“If I felt like the reasoning is because we didn’t necessarily want to send an all-Black squad, it don’t mean that I don’t know we hadn’t sent one in the past,” Rose said.
Rose reiterated later in the video that he wanted to “apologize to the game.” He seemed to make it a point to not apologize to Love, and he said he thinks even Love was shocked to get the invite.
Love averaged 12.2 points and 7.4 rebounds per game this year for Cleveland, which is why Rose believes he received a special invite due to the color of his skin. However, history would indicate Team USA has no problem sending an all-black squad to the Olympics.
