on this edition of of "our world" with black enterprise, a special look at the controversial question -- should pro athletes give back? a former nba star goes from idle on the hardwood to role model off the court. jalen rose is our headliner. plus, our roundtable debates the red-hot questions around a sports star's responsibility to society. >> the reality is if you want to go out there and be paid, you have to and role model to the masses, you have to set an example. all that, up next.

while some professional athletes are only concerned with their latest stats, jalen rose has always been in a different league. he founded the jalen rose foundation in 2000. while still on the basketball court as an indiana pacer. his mission is simple -- give kids the financial support necessary to go to college. i caught up with rose in detroit at his old high school where he holds an annual charity basketball game. we talked about a number of things, including why he's taking giving back so personally. the world was first introduced

to jalen rose when he started his college career at the university of michigan in 1991. a member of the illustrious fab five, the "in your face" group of starters took the wolverines to two ncaa tournament appearances. before his senior year, rose was drafted into the nba where he played pore 13 seasons and played in three consecutive eastern conference finals. with all of this success, rose never forgot where he came from. >> i've been very blessed in my life and my career. i know what it is looic to be a have-not and try to figure out where my next meal is coming from, or understand what it's like to boil water to wash up in the morning. man naz sayonnaise sandwiches. >> is there a particular person

in your life who taught you giving back? was there a certain circumstance? what was it? >> i really got lucky because i was surrounded by a tremendous family group. raised by my mom and sports really was a navigator to really influence me in a positive way from basketball. my high school coach was a big influence on my life. >> i don't want to get too psychological, but how much did the lack of relationship that you had with yourñhñ dad come i play with the idea of dealing with young people? >> when you're young and immature and you're a little bit bitter about not knowing your dad and you know he exists and he was the number one of the '67 draft. you can embrace it and try to follow his footsteps or you can use that as motivation that one day he's going to know my name. a lot of people don't know he wore number 24 as a player. that was the reason why i wore number 42. out of spite. so ultimately, that was one of the things that got me in the gym working every day, pushed me on the court, pushed me in the

weight room to do all of the little things when my friends were obviously making other choices and decisions with their life. that keep me driven on basketball. >> on the surface, sports was a vehicle. but rose also saw his basketball skills as a chance to get a top-notch education. in 2000, rose started awarding scholarships to kids who put in the work. >> fortunately, we got so many young people, especially here in detroit, when our town is doing so bad. i mean it's created a domino effect. our school system has been struggling financially. you see the rates thatby ha bwe as it relates to children enrolling if high school, as well as graduating. schools closing. with all of those things happening around be with you i just want to be the kind of person that understands that college was almost everything for me because i realize, in 2009, if you don't have a college degree, you limit yourself basically in what kind of job you're going to eventually have.

>> reporter: today, the jalen rose foundation has donated more than $1 million to charities, including 35 $10,000 scholarships to detroit students. and through an endowment at the university of michigan, two students so far have been awarded a tuition-free education at his alma mater. jasmine was a high school valedictorian, but not without financial need. >> jalen inspired me because like no matter where you come from, you can -- like if you have a dream, you can do anything with that dream. like go to college, play basketball. i don't know. you can do anything. >> reporter: for his education and sports-related grants benefiting underserved young adults, black enterprise named jalen rose its 2009 community champion award winner. rose is also nominated for the prestigious national jefferson award for outstanding public

service by an athlete. what's been most heartfelt for you? >> being a kid that grew up on the west side of detroit that's known for being more than just a basketball player. that was always important to me. that's why i went to college and xwot a degree. that's why i was really trying to have a media career beyond basketball. i always saw myself as more than a jock. >> tell me the difference in the adulation you got from being on the court and the adulation you just described, the idea of people being truly thankful for your existxistence? >> it means a lot more. in the end of the game, the buzzer sounds and we don't remember the score in five years. just who won or lost. >> finally when you look back and see some of the kids you've helped along the way in terms of scholarships, more importantly the idea of role models and what they see and can aspire, when you close a door and you're alone and you think about it, what do you think about most often? >> i just think about a lot of times growing up in the inner

city, who are your real role models that you can reach out and touch? a lot of times the guy driving down the street with the big car, unfortunately, probably made it doing something illegal. a long time ago i learned there is a way to influence your community. either you can be the guy standing on the corner with them or you can be a guy that they can say, he got off this corner, i want to get off this corner, too. it feels good at the end of the day whindz and my people appreciate me and my communities loves me and i just do the best i can to be the best i can. whoever acknowledges it in a positive manner, then so be it. up next in our roundtable discussion, we flip the topic on its head. do professional athletes need to be socially responsible? we'll take on that question when we return. >> if i'm paying you, it may behoove you to shut up if you want to continue to get paid. that's just a fact. we can't ignore that. [ male announcer looks clean doesn't it.

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welcome back to "our world" with black enterprise. we've all seen the headlines, michael vick, plaxico burress, serena williams, they and others have made headlines outsides the sport arena. what responsibility do they have to be responsible? joining us today to talk about this, steven a. smith, journalist and commentator. drew joyce, high school basketball coach at st. vincent st. mary. he also coached a guy you

probably heard of, lebron james. and jonathan abrams, sports writer for "the new york times." gentlemen, welcome. greatly appreciate it. steven, you and i have talked about this over the years, publy, privately. let me put that to you. do these athlete have a responsibility to the community? >> i think they definitely do have a responsibility. but even more so, if you want to get paid, the reality is that if you want to be a role model, you want to go out there and get paid, you have to be a role model to the masses. you have to set an example that people would want themselves to follow or people would expect of themselves and expect of their children, et cetera. especially when you are put in the public eye. i don't think it's fair to them, but nevertheless, it's a responsibility that isn't going anywhere. >> coach, if there is a handbook to be written, one can argue michael jordan probably wrote the best one. but since this handshake incident, lebron james has really taken that responsibility for image, the responsibility to community. talk to me about what you have

he seen in him and what you've seen in athletes across the board. >> well, what i see in lebron is someone who's mature enough to understand some what have stephen's said, that he need to discipline himself. that's something we've always talked about going way back into high school, that there's a certain amount of discipline that you have to have with respect to the position you've been given. he's on a bigger platform so his responsibility is greater. but all of us are role models at some level. it's not just him. it's all of us. >> are we missing a point here when we look at and question the whole idea of responsibility in that these people attain it very, very early on. as i say, maybe the maturity has not caught up with the bank account. do we take that into account enough? >> i mean these athletes, they have so many people around them, especially the the ones who are up there. lebron, kobe, guys like that. they should be able to put them in places to be ae1 role model. in a perfect world, teachers would be role models, policemen.

but kids don't have posters of them hanging up over their walls. >> i think the biggest thing for me, as i listen both of you alluded to, lebron james and the lack of a handshake incident, when they got lost they got beatdown by the orlando magic, but the reality is this -- lebron james has been as close to perfection as they come. to me, he's the quintessential example of why these guys are role models. because here is a guy that did everything right, had the game to back it up. yet something as seemingly innocuous as losing in game six of the conference finals and refusing to shake hands -- you all of a sudden have people bringing his image into question, wondering how that was going to affect him endorsementwise. so we recognize who somebody is, even as great as him, the impact that he could potentially have, and as a result, what expectations are that come along

with with it. you can't ignore it. >> coach, what was unique about him, when jordan came in, the expectation of michael jordan coming into the league was not the same as lebron had walking into the league. it was amazing that on both ends, on the social side, and on the athletic side, he is not only met but perhaps surpassed what people were looking at. talk to me about what he obviously had to receive beyond his god-given talents to make that happen. >> well, i think for one thing, lebron is very intelligent. he was intelligent enough to look at other people's lives and see, i don't want to go down that road. he could see the headlines. he could see mistakes people made. all the time growing up we always talked about decisions create the environment. the decisions you make create the environment you have to live in. those are lessons that i think are pertinent for everyone.

he understood early on with the celebrity that he had in high school, with some of the decisions he made, there were some negative things that happened to him. he started to recognize that these decisions count. >> i think, too, stephen, part of it is the problem with a lot of these cats is nobody, at whatever age, ever wants to tell them -- i remember askin sugar ray leonard, didn't anybody tell you when you were going into the ring with hearns it looked like he would annihilate you, he said, no, because i was paying them. >> that is a part of the problem. because if i'm paying you, it may behoove you to shut up if you want to continue to get paid. that's just a fact. we can't ignore that. the other thing is you have to compartmentalize to some degree, what really draws a distinction between plaxico burress and michael vick. in the case of plaxico burress here was a guy who was ignorant to the law at hand.

he did have a concealed weapon. it was licensed in florida until may of 2008. he didn't get it renewed. he wasn't aware of the laws that existed in new york and new jersey and the fact that you had a guy like mayor bloomberg who called for a mandatory 3 1/2-year jail sentence in the event you were carrying an unlicensed concealed weapon. so ignorance of the law is ultimately what he's paying the price for. by the way, you shouldn't be going to the a nightclub with a pistol. michael vick, i wish him the best. this is the land of second chances but the reality is you're a criminal, you're a felon. you knew you were break the law but yet you chose to finance this. you lie to the face of the owner, the atlanta falcons. you lied in the face of the commissioner roger goodell. you lied to everybody and their mama because you knew you were breaking the law and tried to circumvent it. he paid the ultimate price for it, 18 months locked down at

levinworth. one is ignorant, one is intentional. when you talk about intentional, you talk about hangers-on and people who shouldn't be around you. >> coach, in the unique position of coaching lebron, you knew what his future was probably going to be, yet you still had to figure out some way to say, look, man, at the end of the day i'm your coach. talk to me about, even a lesser player and today's athlete, how difficult is that sometimes when these cats believe that -- yeah, you're my coach right now but i'm getting ready to get paid in a year and i don't really need to listen to you, i need to showcase my talent. >> yeah, it can be very difficult. i think if you haven't built a trust factor with a player and luckily for me, i had been coaching lebron since he was 11 years old. he understood that i was for m him, that i loved him. i was going to be involved in his life regardless. but i think that a lot of times

athletes are coddled. even the coaches are afraid to get up and tell them, hey, this is the wrong way or you're not going to play for me. but you have to draw the line. i think as a coach you have that -- that's part of your responsibility. i think as a coach you have a unique opportunity to pour your life into someone else's life and you need to stand up and -- >> let me use the serena williams incident. she went beyond what we normally see on a court. yeah, you can scream, you can yell, you can even say -- but she went way beyond what she should have. i'll say that flatly. >> what shocked me about the serena williams situation -- believe me, she crossed the line, she deserved to be punished and fined severely. i don't think she deserved to be suspended but she deserved to be fine. what's shock something she was treated like a black man. oh, she was holding up the racket. oh, my god, my life was in danger. give me a break. she lost it. she had a tell ter tantrum.

she, she spewed profanity. there were thousands of people in a public arena. what do you mean, you were afraid for your life? stop the nonsense. >> hang on just a moment. we'll take a quick break, back in just a minute. >> these guys surround their selves with the right people that they can get some help and begin to understand, you know, the responsibility that they have. [ michael hall we are only as good as the things we make today. and today we're making 5,400 welds, in the body of the new jeep grand cherokee. ♪ that might seem like a lot, if you're building a car. but not if you're building a company. ♪ the new jeep grand cherokee. ♪

aspercreme breaks the grip, with maximum-strength medicine and no embarrassing odor. break the grip of pain with aspercreme. back with final thoughts. stephen, as i think about it, and i know it happened prior to this, but maybe the biggest notoriety was the whole charles barkley incident whether it really hit. whether or not you're a role model. you talk with these guys every day. do the majority of them see themselves as that in. >> the majority of them see hem selves as that but they're not comfortable with it because they feel like they're a scapegoat for the rest of society. have you politicians having extramarital affairs. you've got others ripping people off. you've got people on wall street doing some of the das tardily things that they do and they feel like sports, the

distraction that it was supposed to be, instead of it being a reprieve from the daily things that ale us all, the fact is it's been used as a distraction in a negative way where too much attention is focused on them and their personal lives as opposed to the games that they play. >> you cover a city where arguably the white hotspot light on athletes is far greater than any other in terms of new york and what it can bring to you, but also the downfall that one can see. talk to me about how you have seen these guys handle it. >> especially in new york, there's just a 24-hour cycle. but the good ones can get away from it if they want to. you never hear anything about derek jeter, even though he's always dating an actress. a-rod is a different story. it is all about how you handle it and whether you want to be in that public spotlight or not. >> finally, coach, you alluded to it with lebron, at the end of the day, you've got to see these people as individuals because one may be able to handle it and the next guy, like any other place you work in, one guy's

good and the other guy, you wonder, why are you here? >> very much so. i think lebron's uniquely gifted to handle the celebrity. i said it when he was in high school. i could see it then. and others aren't. but i still think that if you surround yourself -- if these guys surround themselves with the right people, they can get some help and they can begin to understand, you know, the responsibility that they have. >> gentlemen, thank you very. age-old question but one that continues to be asked and not quite answered yet. appreciate it. thank you for joining us. you can see coach drew, lebron and his high school teammates in the documentary "more than a game" playing in select cities across the country. we'll be back right after ♪ [ boy humming ♪ [ humming ♪ [ humming

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mpls that's it for this edition of "our world" black enterprise.

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