That's pretty funny considering Michigan hasn't been relevant in college basketball for over a decade. I don't have any insight into Duke's recruiting practice -- but I doubt that they would pass up a top talent just because of the school or area he grew up in. They probably do place a greater emphasis on character, but you can't find out a kid's character without talking to him or his coach. Whatever they're doing, it's working (unfortunately). edit: I don't mean to come across as attacking you, I know you didn't make the comments. I know ND football recruits nationally and isn't afraid to take kids out of one-parent households; but they also hard-sell the education part of what they can offer, and that usually doesn't resonate with most inner-city kids.
He really didn't address the racial side of it. He might as well be talking about how certain schools only recruit hometown kids.
Yeah I don't think he has come out and said he doesn't feel that way today. He seems to be dancing around the question. I don't think the hometown kids thing was his point though. In basketball it seems like most players are from all over unlike College Football.
The panel in the interview, Rose, King, Bayless and another ESPN person, kept saying "Duke recruits only from private schools." Like you: I'm not sure how true that is. But no one seemed to argue the point.
Outstanding response by Grant Hill. And let's face it, the reason why Kwame hates Battier so much has little to do with what Battier does on the court. He hates him for the exact same reason Jalen Rose made that comment. It's the same mindset behind both.
And what about the kid who knows his father earns good money but never meets his own son or helps raise him in any way whatsoever. Do you know what that had to do mentally to Jalen? I'm not saying that Jalen's take is right but considering his circumstances, if anyone is allowed to be jealous of Grant Hill and his relationship with his professional athlete father it is a 17 year old Jalen Rose. http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?page=Rose-Walker "What was there to say?" says Jeanne, who met Walker at a popular West Detroit nightspot and didn't realize he was married at the time. "A year after Jalen was born, I told Jimmy, 'If you don't give me a dime, at least be a father to your son.' He couldn't even do that." And that caught most who knew Walker by surprise. In Detroit, kids were drawn to Walker's magnetic personality, and the All-Star guard welcomed them. He was in that first wave of NBA players who became a fixture at St. Cecilia and the nearby YMCA, offering fatherly advice and even tickets to Cobo Hall to many of the kids who played at the gym. "Jimmy was the one guy who stayed in the community," Bing says. "He had a great connection with the local kids." A great connection with all except for Rose, who was born in January 1973, months after Walker's trade to Houston. While Walker enjoyed healthy earnings befitting a top-round pick and an All-Star, Jeanne struggled raising four kids as a single mom on a Chrysler keypunch clerk's salary. "No electricity, no hot water, no heat -- at times we struggled," Rose, the youngest of Jeanne's kids, says. "We'd wake up in the morning and wash with water we heated on a hot plate. And we'd go to bed at night wearing skull caps, sweat shirts and gloves."
OOPS! Wrong thread. Any ways I don't understand why Grant is making this seem like this is how Jalen feels today. I do not like Jalen, he doesn't really say anything interesting and is a boring personality. I am surprised he has been around longer than Emmit Smith now or it seems like it.
Honestly, there is a difference between a Duke graduate and a regular old basketball player. His response was spot on. He makes me really miss Shane...
Its one thing for Jalen to say these things as a teenager. Where I have a problem is how he continued to say similar things on ESPN after the documentary aired. A black man calling another black man an Uncle Tom is as bad as a white man calling a black man the N word. Before Jalen criticizes a black man for going to Duke, he should look in the mirror and see himself dressed in a nice suit, working for a predominantly white sports network. He is extremely well spoken, and appears to have left his inner city roots behind. Even he says Duke would probably recruit his kids today which means they are probably the private school attending well raised black kids that he hated growing up. Many blacks might see him today versus the 17 year old jalen and feel he has become an uncle tom. Dont think he would like to hear that said however.
He is going to be a great coach someday with this kind of mindset. Hope he'll coach our Rockets after Rick:grin:
I read Mr. Hills entire response to the documentary. http://thequad.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/16/grant-hills-response-to-jalen-rose/ It's like watching Iron Chef Morimoto dismember a Tuna, to the nth degree, with a Ginsu Knife as a stop watch keeps time. It equals 1 thousand tiny paper cuts to the webbing between Roses fingers and toes. Grant Hill to Jalen Rose.... You have been weighed, you have been measured, and you have been found wanting. In what world could you possibly beat me? (quote from A Knight's Tale) zzpot Puff puff
The response may have been more effective if he only mentioned Jalen to bring up how the topic had recently been raised. And then went on to describe the experience of thousands of "uncle toms" such as himself, and how that line of thinking (especially in kids) is damaging, counter-productive and deserves to be ridiculed. I think the response was necessary since the topic was never properly condemned by Jalen or anyone else, so someone had to do it. However, since Grant made it a little personal (which I can understand), most of the focus seems to be on defending Jalen's thoughts as an 18 year old, which I'd say is pretty much the root of the problem.
Exactly. I had no opinion of Rose at all, until he did that to Elie. Then I had a strong dislike for him. It hasn't changed. Classy move by Hill.
Grant Hill isn't an Uncle Tom because he grew up in a two parent household, "speaks well" (always funny to me), or because his parents had money. What would make Grant Hill and other Black Duke players Uncle Toms is the fact that they went to a school that refuses to recruit inner city black athletes. When Hill's father was at Yale, Duke was not admitting any black athletes. Since Hill has graduated and generated millions for Duke, Coach K still does not recruit inner city athletes that fit Jalen Roses's HS profile. So when you are a black person that supports institutions that deny other blacks opportunities, why would you not be an Uncle Tom? Why isn't anyone slamming Coach K for NEVER recruiting athletes from certain zip codes?
Wow, I basically disagree with all of this. Because of Grant Hill's success Coach K should be recruiting players who have upbringings completely disparate from Grant Hill's? That doesn't make sense to me. If you're saying that black Duke players are Uncle Toms because they support "institutions that deny other blacks opportunities", you're basically calling ALL black college basketball players Uncle Toms. How many poor, black kids from the inner city with low grades and standardized test scores would get into the University of Michigan, one of the toughest public schools to get into, without athletic ability?
It's a University, not a charity. Attacking a school for taking academics into consideration in their recruiting process seems pretty unworthy of criticism. If anything they should be commended, especially considering the stand these teams/schools have made in regards to academics only serve to hurt their recruiting by limiting the pool of athletes. Find something more deserving to complain about.
