sorry here is the actual COMPLETE article... http://thequad.blogs.nytimes.com/20...to&smid=tw-nytimessports&loc=interstitialskip
I'll post the whole thing. Powerful. It makes Jalen Rose look like a complete ignoramus. http://thequad.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/16/grant-hills-response-to-jalen-rose/ MARCH 16, 2011, 1:47 PM Grant Hill’s Response to Jalen Rose By GRANT HILL Associated Press Grant Hill currently plays for the Phoenix Suns. “The Fab Five,” an ESPN film about the Michigan basketball careers of Jalen Rose, Juwan Howard, Chris Webber, Jimmy King and Ray Jackson from 1991 to 1993, was broadcast for the first time Sunday night. In the show, Rose, the show’s executive producer, stated that Duke recruited only black players he considered to be “Uncle Toms.” Grant Hill, a player on the Duke team that beat Michigan in the 1992 Final Four, reflected on Rose’s comments. I am a fan, friend and longtime competitor of the Fab Five. I have competed against Jalen Rose and Chris Webber since the age of 13. At Michigan, the Fab Five represented a cultural phenomenon that impacted the country in a permanent and positive way. The very idea of the Fab Five elicited pride and promise in much the same way the Georgetown teams did in the mid-1980s when I was in high school and idolized them. Their journey from youthful icons to successful men today is a road map for so many young, black men (and women) who saw their journey through the powerful documentary, “The Fab Five.” It was a sad and somewhat pathetic turn of events, therefore, to see friends narrating this interesting documentary about their moment in time and calling me a b**** and worse, calling all black players at Duke “Uncle Toms” and, to some degree, disparaging my parents for their education, work ethic and commitment to each other and to me. I should have guessed there was something regrettable in the documentary when I received a Twitter apology from Jalen before its premiere. I am aware Jalen has gone to some length to explain his remarks about my family in numerous interviews, so I believe he has some admiration for them. In his garbled but sweeping comment that Duke recruits only “black players that were ‘Uncle Toms,’ ” Jalen seems to change the usual meaning of those very vitriolic words into his own meaning, i.e., blacks from two-parent, middle-class families. He leaves us all guessing exactly what he believes today. I am beyond fortunate to have two parents who are still working well into their 60s. They received great educations and use them every day. My parents taught me a personal ethic I try to live by and pass on to my children. I come from a strong legacy of black Americans. My namesake, Henry Hill, my father’s father, was a day laborer in Baltimore. He could not read or write until he was taught to do so by my grandmother. His first present to my dad was a set of encyclopedias, which I now have. He wanted his only child, my father, to have a good education, so he made numerous sacrifices to see that he got an education, including attending Yale. This is part of our great tradition as black Americans. We aspire for the best or better for our children and work hard to make that happen for them. Jalen’s mother is part of our great black tradition and made the same sacrifices for him. My teammates at Duke — all of them, black and white — were a band of brothers who came together to play at the highest level for the best coach in basketball. I know most of the black players who preceded and followed me at Duke. They all contribute to our tradition of excellence on the court. It is insulting and ignorant to suggest that men like Johnny Dawkins (coach at Stanford), Tommy Amaker (coach at Harvard), Billy King (general manager of the Nets), Tony Lang (coach of the Mitsubishi Diamond Dolphins in Japan), Thomas Hill (small-business owner in Texas), Jeff Capel (former coach at Oklahoma and Virginia Commonwealth), Kenny Blakeney (assistant coach at Harvard), Jay Williams (ESPN analyst), Shane Battier (Memphis Grizzlies) and Chris Duhon (Orlando Magic) ever sold out their race. To hint that those who grew up in a household with a mother and father are somehow less black than those who did not is beyond ridiculous. All of us are extremely proud of the current Duke team, especially Nolan Smith. He was raised by his mother, plays in memory of his late father and carries himself with the pride and confidence that they instilled in him. The sacrifice, the effort, the education and the friendships I experienced in my four years are cherished. The many Duke graduates I have met around the world are also my “family,” and they are a special group of people. A good education is a privilege. Just as Jalen has founded a charter school in Michigan, we are expected to use our education to help others, to improve life for those who need our assistance and to use the excellent education we have received to better the world. A highlight of my time at Duke was getting to know the great John Hope Franklin, John B. Duke Professor of History and the leading scholar of the last century on the total history of African-Americans in this country. His insights and perspectives contributed significantly to my overall development and helped me understand myself, my forefathers and my place in the world. Ad ingenium faciendum, toward the building of character, is a phrase I recently heard. To me, it is the essence of an educational experience. Struggling, succeeding, trying again and having fun within a nurturing but competitive environment built character in all of us, including every black graduate of Duke. My mother always says, “You can live without Chaucer and you can live without calculus, but you cannot make it in the wide, wide world without common sense.” As we get older, we understand the importance of these words. Adulthood is nothing but a series of choices: you can say yes or no, but you cannot avoid saying one or the other. In the end, those who are successful are those who adjust and adapt to the decisions they have made and make the best of them. I caution my fabulous five friends to avoid stereotyping me and others they do not know in much the same way so many people stereotyped them back then for their appearance and swagger. I wish for you the restoration of the bond that made you friends, brothers and icons. I am proud of my family. I am proud of my Duke championships and all my Duke teammates. And, I am proud I never lost a game against the Fab Five. Grant Henry Hill Phoenix Suns Duke ‘94
I understand where J. Rose was coming from. Grant Hill had all the things that he didn't have growing up, so there is some jealousy and hatred there. Uncle Tom is misused, but you can see why 18 year old Jalen Rose would envy and hate Grant Hill.
I will always hate Duke until I die, but I respect the hell out of Grant Hill. Great article, great player, and an even better person.
i don't care what y'all say it way a good documentary. It would been way better if it had c-webb but he had nothing to gain by comin on the show
Webber was a very good NBA player, a borderline hall of famer.... but not like he could of been... he had the ability to be an all time great. His issue was maturity and his mental state.
Instant HoF if he got past the Lakers. Wtf Jalen. All you could do in the end was Twitter? Didn't your parents teach you any better?
There was UNLV, Georgetown even Phi Slamma Jamma (w our own Dream and Glyde) that had that swagg. Georgetown and Houston were a decade before the Fab 5. This documentary makes it seem like Michigan was this black power revolution. Did you watch the documentary? Who was the leader of the Fab 5? Was it Chris Webber? If the leader of the Fab 5 is an Uncle Tom, what's that make the Fab 5? Your post doesn't even make sense. Of "the rest of them" Jimmy King was from PLANO TEXAS. So basically 2 of the Fab 5 were suburban kids, and 2 of them (Howard, Rose) were notedly from the city. Thise dudes were straight up gangsa doggg. The Uncle Tom comments were not "over the top" they were ignorant and racist. Jalen isn't even "hard" enough to say what he's really feeling. The difference between Webber and Hill isn't that they both were recruited by Duke (they both were). The difference between Webber and Hill isn't that they were both privileged and went to elite schools (they both did). It's not even that Webber and Hill both had hard working parents who provided materially and emotionally (which they both benefited from). The difference is that Hill was light skinned and kept it real talking like Obama while Chris' skin was blueberry black and fronted like he was hard even though he was from the suburbs. If you're going to defend Rose's "Uncle Tom" comments be real about what he's saying. Really there's no difference in the recruiting or background of Webber (who is not an Uncle Tom) and Hill (who is). They were both recruited by Krzyzewski and were suburban middle class kids. The only difference was the way they acted. Rose's entire commentary is a stigmatizing of people not "acting black" enough for his own liking and it's a means of judging other people and trying to control how other black kids act. That **** about Rose's hard luck life has nothing to do with his comments. His jealousy has nothing to do with his comments. It has to do with him judging this and that black man for not being black enough (and he doesn't even have the guts to be consistent and name his friend Chris Webber using the same criteria) which is the definition of racism. The crap that is said about Duke is also said by white suburban kids about white player who go there.
Well Bloop we probably won't come to an agreement on this but Jalen definitely was jealous of Grant and he mentioned why he was jealous of him in the documentary. Jalen using uncle tom definitely is going to bring out critics. When I would think of Duke I never thought of their players as Uncle Tom type players. Duke does seem to only recruit players from good homes which there is nothing wrong with that especially considering how tough the NCAA rules can be. That is the type of system they run and like I said I don't think it is wrong for Coach K to recruit mainly those type of kids. Pretty sure the fact that Grant Hill was light skin had nothing to do with Jalen's thoughts considering Juwan Howard and Jalen Rose himself are light skin. Grant may have sounded like Obama to you but listening to the fab 5 Interviews that they showed while they were in College and I didn't get the vibe that they were dumb guys. In fact plenty of people have said that those guys were pretty smart guys in school. End of the day I think he was just bitter about the whole situation and took it out on Hill. But we just have two different views of he situation.
I'm confused how you can be confused? What part of the post was confusing to you? For what it's worth, Rose insulted Hill with the worst pejorative a black man can say about another black man, basically a race sellout, and Hill responded. Seems like am utterly normal sequence of events, not sure how you get that Hill is a great player and an even better person from that. His response seemed pretty lame, and honestly what he wrote isn't going to convince anyone of anything. Young kids who think Rose is just "keeping it real" with those epithets aren't going to be swayed by his comments and those who were already up in arms about "Uncle Tom" didn't need any convincing. Duke is no different from Stanford, Harvard or Notre Dame. They only recruit players who can do the schoolwork. Obviously those kids don't have to be as smart as the regular students but they at least need to be able to read and write and go to class. The real reason why Rose and Howard didn't get recruited by Duke is that Krzyzewski wasn't going to pay them to play like at Michigan and he wasn't going to put their AAU coach onstaff either. Rose executive produced that 30 for 30 feature and to me it looks like he knew it would breed controversy and publicity for the documentary. He says it to make himself and the guys look "hard" compared to Hill and the Dookies . Substantively there's no difference between Webber and Hill they're the same type of kid. Was he jealous of Webber too? He singled out Grant Hill when there are millions of kids like him (black kids) in America to make for good TV. There's been some backlash about Hill's comments as well and that there even is that conversation actually reflects how deepseated the sort of racism that Rose exhibits against other black people is in our society. If Rose had done a documentary that called Stephon Marbury a "b****" and "Uncle Tom" and talked about his momma, or Gary Payton, do you think anyone would be surprised at a comeback by those guys. Because he's Grant Hill people are somewhat surprised that he called Rose out on his comments.
a lot of black kids felt like that about Duke at the time. The key word is kids. and unfortunately a lot of black bball fans feel like duke is overhyped because they have a lot of white players on their team.
Isn't that also why black fans traditionally felt the Celtics were overrated and players like Larry Bird are overrated?
^ Seriously, I really don't have a problem with this documentary and for the record, I really like Jalen Rose, especially as an analyst. I get that sometimes people and players say things or do things to get them "pumped" or motivated to play to their very best. Yet at the same time, there are just some things or some places you don't go. I'm sure that Jalen would be the first person to admit that he was immature and jealous when he was 17, but he is 38 now. He has made more money than many people ever will in their lifetime. Hell, he is still making decent money considering he is no longer a professional athlete. I think he can be big enough and tell Grant Hill that his comment over 20 years ago about him and the other black players at Duke was a mistake. But I am getting the impression that he (Jalen) is unwilling to recant that statement and not offer an apology. And yes I get that Grant Hill had a lot more advantages in his life compared to the normal black athlete, but that doesn't mean he "sold out" his race; it just means that life was more favorable to him and his parents. It reminds me when I was in college - one of my best friends was black and from Memphis. He was light-skinned and he didn't talk "ghetto". He was a ladies' man and he caught a lot of flak from other black students in the dorms for the fact that he would go out with white girls (he would date black girls at times, too). He went to Christian Brothers High School in Memphis which is one of the most prestigious private schools in TN. He was able to go there because his dad was an opthmalogist (sp?). But because he hung around white guys like myself, dated white girls, didn't talk "ghetto", was light-skinned, went to a private school, etc. , he was called an "oreo cookie" by some of the other black guys around the dorms. They said he was "black on the outside but white on the inside". By them calling him that, they might as well had been Jalen Rose and called him an "Uncle Tom" - either way, they were pretty much saying to his face that he had "sold out his race". Which was ridiculous because he was very proud of his heritage, very proud that he is black. Just because he was lucky enough to have a better upbringing didn't mean he "sold out". It just bothers me to hear garbage like that because I remember the various times he would complain to me about hearing stuff like that. When you have a friend and you see them hurting in pain, especially over things they have no control over - it angers you to hear petty, jealous, immature punks like Jalen Rose saying things that they have no clue about. No clue at all. That ends my rant on this topic.
Jalen shouldn't have to offer an apology, grant wouldn't have know jalen felt that way 20 years ago if it weren't for the 30 for 30
