Jason Whitlock is not happy that Mitch Albom won The Red Smith Award from the Associated Press Sports Editors (APSE), and via The Big Lead, he shares his thoughts.

When I took a job in 1992 at the Ann Arbor News, I had a front-row seat during King Myth Albom’s glory years. My main job was covering the Fab Five. Albom’s main job seemed to be creating a Fab Five narrative that would fit neatly into a best-selling book.

Not surprisingly, most of my Michigan sports-writing peers watched the Fab Five pull up to practices and games in expensive SUVs and assumed C-Web, Jalen, Juwan and Co. weren’t exactly starving while pursuing higher education. I spent an entire day playing video games inside Webber’s beautifully furnished apartment. Years later, nothing about the Ed Martin investigation and the hundreds of thousands of dollars funneled to Webber surprised me.

Only Myth Albom, the “journalist” given the most access to the Fab Five by head coach Steve Fisher, was shocked by the good life Webber lived on UM’s campus. In his Fab Five book, Albom lamented the “fact” that Webber couldn’t afford McDonald’s while the university made millions off the sale of his jersey.

Feel-good narrative fiction bullshit was Albom’s money-maker long before he published Tuesdays with Morrie and The Five People You Meet in Heaven.

Whitlock’s story about the Fab Five made me wonder — back in the day, why didn’t he write about how Chris, Jalen and Juwan were driving expensive SUVs? Maybe he filed a story, I don’t know…but I doubt it. Instead he’s spending an entire day playing video games at Webber’s ‘beautifully furnished apartment.’

I’m not a fan of Mitch Albom either, but it seems Whitlock is not criticizing him for turning a blind eye to the money surrounding the Fab Five, since he did the same thing. Instead, he’s criticizing Albom for acting surprised about the revelation that they were paid to play for Michigan.

Isn’t this a little hypocritical?

- If you didn’t catch the Pro Bowl (and really, who would?), Larry Fitzgerald dissed Chris Cooley in the end zone. CHRIS COOLEY’S BLOG has the first hand account, and YARDBARKER has the video.

- Female DEADSPIN writers deconstruct the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue.

- THE LOVE OF SPORTS has a great list of the one-hit wonders of the NBA All-Star Game. You know, guys who made the team and didn’t really deserve it.

- DEADSPIN comments on Mitch Albom’s comments on bloggers who comment on…whatever it is that bloggers comment on. (I wouldn’t know.)

What did you expect? Any country that would lip-sync out a 7-year-old singer because she wasn’t cute enough for the opening ceremony wouldn’t hesitate to use underage children to capture gold medals. That’s a no-brainer. There is what you see and there is what really goes on in China, and what you see at these Games, the image they project, is as precious as oxygen to the New Emperor of the Planet. Who cares if a gymnast is so young she is, as one critic charged, “missing a tooth”?

In trying so hard to win, the Chinese are oblivious to the fact that they look ridiculous to the rest of the world. The Chinese team was impressive as hell in wiining the team gold medal, but China has paid a price with their credibility, not that they care much. At least guys like Albom can have some fun with it.

You must turn 16 in the Olympic year to compete in this sport. But honestly. This one girl? Deng Linlin? She’s 16 the way I’m 16. All the girls are tiny: She looks up to them. Previous registrations for events suggest several Chinese gymnasts may barely be 14 (even that is hard to believe), but all you need for the Games is a valid passport, and, surprise, the team has those. Who are you going to interrogate? The Chinese president?

Fortunately for the American team, Nastia Liuken and Shawn Johnson were able to finish first and second in the all-around competition. By taking the gold and silver medals, they were able to quell the controversy a little.