5W Transitions Jalen Rose From The Hardwood to the Broadcast Booth

A 13 year NBA veteran and former member of the infamous Michigan “Fab Five”, Jalen Rose turned to 5W Public Relations in 2004 to heighten his marketability and maintain his visibility amongst American NBA fans despite playing in Canada for the Toronto Raptors at the time. We leveraged Jalen as a trendsetter and one of the NBA’s overall good guy’s. We promoted Jalen’s charitable work by highlighting a donation in the amount of $240,000 to the University of Michigan to create an endowment scholarship in his name. Furthermore, we highlighted Jalen’s foundation (the Jalen Rose Foundation) and his web site (www.jalenrose.com) to make him relevant to corporate and lifestyle media. This technique appealed to the casual NBA fan and the media, and allowed us to position Jalen as the rare athlete who takes responsibility in his community as a role model by highlighting his many donations such as his Scholarship fund and recent donation of $100,000 towards a hospital in Congo, Africa.
Positioning for the next phase of his career, namely to make him a marketable broadcaster and off the court personality, we secured interviews and features and Jalen in major print and broadcast outlets across the country. While playing on the Raptors, Knicks and Suns, we worked around Jalen’s schedule generating feature stories and ONE-ON-ONE interviews with FOX News, The Source Magazine, ESPN the Magazine, BET, Best Damn Sports Show, Vibe, Penthouse, Hemispheres, Complex, Hoops, Slam, Black Men, Dime and Sporting News radio. In addition to securing media placements, we focused on getting Jalen access to some of the entertainment and fashion industry’s hottest events such as NY Fashion Week, BET Awards, MTV Awards, etc. This allows Jalen to stay relevant within the media’s eye while maintaining awareness within top tier celebrities and entertainers.

Today, Jalen Rose serves as one of ESPN’s lead NBA commentators and is a fixture on the network’s programming. While many athletes speculate about what they will do when their career is complete, Jalen Rose’s ability to successfully make the transition during his career through strategic media relations has served him well. Now with Jalen in the broadcast booth, 5W continues to maximize his presence in the media and positioning him as one of the up and coming sports commentators.