There was plenty to discuss with Jalen Rose during his annual celebrity golf outing.
His namesake high school, the Jalen Rose Leadership Academy, is a year away from expansion. Same Page Entertainment, his production company founded with Detroit Pistons owner Tom Gores, recently finished its first season. And the former ESPN analyst is back to making regular appearances on the network, three years after he was laid off.
Rose – a Fab Five star at Michigan and then a 13-year NBA pro – had a lot of people to thank as he greeted the audience at his 16th annual Jalen Rose Leadership Academy Celebrity Golf Classic on Monday, July 27. The event, staged at TPC Michigan in Dearborn, washeld to raise money for the tuition-free charter school, which opened
in 2011 and enrolls more than 400 students in grades 9 through 12.
The star-studded event featured a long list of local and national faces in sports and media, including ex-Lions Calvin Johnson and Joique Bell, famed boxer Thomas Hearns, metro Detroit NBA veterans Steve Smith, Terry Mills and Grant Long, Fab Five teammates Jimmy King and Ray Jackson and many others.
"It means everything," Rose said of the support. "It's necessary. And just people taking their time, their energy, their money, they'll donate to JRLA in any way, shape, or form. I just have a level of gratitude and enthusiasm. I'm like, uplifting, giving back to this community and the work that we're doing is game-changing. So just very happy that we were gonna host our 16th annual, as you mentioned, not one, not six, not 10. I was like, 'Wow, 16.' That's real currency."
The academy was gifted the former Henry Ford Health Kingswood Hospital building in Royal Oak Township last May. The building is in the midst of a $25 million conversion from hospital to a building suitable for a high school population of up to 800 students – double JRLA's current enrollment. The school's current building, located in northwest Detroit, was an elementary school.
After the move into the new building, Rose is planning to expand JRLA with a middle school in the old building.
"The expansion opportunity is gonna be incredible for JRLA because our current building can now actually be what it’s designed to be, and that's a lower school or a middle school, and the new facility is gonna be our high school," he said. "So it gives us a chance to influence more young people with a 9-through-16 model already. So at the point of expansion, once we raise this $25 million, I hope to make it 5-through-16."
Rose also launched his acting career this year with his new show "South West High," which premiered on Tubi in February. In it, he plays a former professional basketball player named Nolan Thomas who becomes a high school principal at his Detroit alma mater. The story closely mirrors Rose's own, as an alumnus of now-shuttered Detroit Southwestern.
There's more in store for Same Page Entertainment. He also said a second season is in the works for "South West High."
"The greatest thing I can say about 'South West High' is Detroit is proud of it," he said. " And that was the goal. As you start an entertainment company here, even as somebody that’s now worked in multimedia for now almost 30 years, normally you would usually have to go to New York, or go to LA to be seen, to be heard, to get in front of the camera, to have the opportunity. So I'm trying to create that here."
Long one of the most prominent faces of ESPN, Rose made his "Inside The NBA" debut on TNT in late 2024. Rose made regular appearances on the show, which now airs on ESPN, this past season as a fill-in.
His departure from ESPN in 2023 opened the door for Rose to pursue new projects, such as his TV show. Whether it's at a desk alongside Charles Barkley or on a television set, Rose has continued to find ways to stay in front of the camera while continuing to pour more resources into his academy.
"It's been incredible," he said. "I get to do what I love, so it doesn't feel like work."
Contact Omari Sankofa II at osankofa@freepress.com. Follow him on X and/or Bluesky.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: School days again for Jalen Rose with TV work, JRLA expansion
