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Jalen Rose vs. Grant Hill
On Sunday night, ESPN aired a documentary about Michigan’s Fab Five — Jalen Rose, Juwan Howard, Chris Webber, Jimmy King and Ray Jackson — and their experiences during some great years for college basketball, the early 90s. During that time, Michigan battled Duke and North Carolina, among other powerhouses, in some epic contests.
Rose made some explosive comments on the documentary, including:
“I hated Duke and I hated everything Duke stood for. Schools like Duke didn’t recruit players like me. I felt like they only recruited black players that were Uncle Toms … I was jealous of Grant Hill. He came from a great black family. Congratulations, your mom went to college and was roommates with Hillary Clinton. And your dad played in the NFL — a very well-spoken and successful man. I was upset and bitter my mom had to bust her hump for 20-plus years. I was bitter that I had a professional athlete that was my father that I didn’t know. I resented that more than I resented him. I looked at it as they are who the world accepts and we are who the world hates.”
Today, Grant Hill responds in what I think is brilliant fashion. Classy but cutting. Purposeful and pointed. An excerpt:
…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 …
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.
… 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.
…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.
Published in General…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.
As a lifelong Tar Heel, I am not championing a “hated” Dukie like Grant Hil…OK he is a class guy. And I would see the comments of Rose as objectionable if he had been describing how he feels today. But he was talking about how he felt in the early 90’s as a teenager!
Keep in mind that Rose uses the past tense: this is how I felt, not necessarily how I feel today. In fact, the vibe I get is that he’s confessing his own irrationality back then.
The guy’s getting a bum rap, IMO.
You said it, sister!
Love simultaneous posts, LH. Great minds think alike.
LH and Scott, great points. I haven’t seen the show yet, have you?
However, I know that Hill and Coach K were not on the show to respond/comment. Rose is the executive producer of the show.
Also, while you are right, this is how he *felt* while being recruited many moons ago, he doesn’t, in my opinion, reject that view as ignorant, totally uninformed, unfair, wrong, damaging, etc. He could have done a lot more in that regard, don’t you think? It seems he’s unclear, at best, about his current feelings.
All I’ve seen is the linked segment. I agree it’s ambiguous, but I’ll give the guy the benefit of the doubt. I can’t believe he’d throw out a premeditated and obviously lame Uncle Tom bomb like that. I bet he’ll be responding to the Grant Hill rebuke soon enough: “I didn’t mean it like that, Grant. I admire your family, etc…”
Good word for it, Scott. It’s the ambiguity which is a hair troubling. He’s definitely talking about “back then.” And, I’m pretty sure he already did apologize. In his response, Hill says he got a tweeted apology. And, Rose has been on a lot of shows since this broke (a week ago?) to clarify/revise whatever. But, there’s a hint of something in the clip. Like, he’s not totally, 100% ashamed of that view. He should be, in my opinion, and Hill explains why, quite well, in his rebuttal.
Go Deacs.
If I had a son with the talent to shoot hoops in the NCAA and the opportunity to play for Duke, he wouldn’t have a choice to make!
Coach K is the epitome of all that is right with college athletics and a torchbearer of excellence both on and off the court. Duke’s players and program are reflections of his impeccable standards.
With that said (sorry, Pat Sajak), I must admit that the Fab Five were awfully fun to watch in their day!
I watched the documentary in question last night on DVR and was utterly shocked by what I heard from Jalen Rose. My heart breaks for a young kid who was obviously (and understandably) hurt by his loser father, but Rose went way too far in his personal and nasty attack on Grant Hill and his family. The race game in this country has done nothing but produce confused, bitter, and worse off people.
Coach K is the epitome of all that is right with college athletics and a torchbearer of excellence both on and off the court. Duke’s players and program are reflections of his impeccable standards.
Can I get an amen?
Elizabeth Dunn: If I had a son with the talent to shoot hoops in the NCAA and the opportunity to play for Duke, he wouldn’t have a choice to make!
Coach K is the epitome of all that is right with college athletics and a torchbearer of excellence both on and off the court. Duke’s players and program are reflections of his impeccable standards.
Only if it also applies to Tom Izzo and… wait for it… Bob Knight.
BTW, I watched the show; it was pretty good, though Webber’s absence made it a little odd.
I don’t think Jalen said anything out of line. I wish he had made it clearer that what he believed as a pup was stupid. I do think that it was clear that he doesn’t believe it now.
Jalen didn’t like the fact that Duke made its players go to class. But then, if he had some teammates that could count to six, he might have won a national championship.
Coach K is the epitome of all that is right with college athletics and a torchbearer of excellence both on and off the court. Duke’s players and program are reflections of his impeccable standards.
Can I get an amen? ·Mar 16 at 4:24pm
Amen!
Palaeo: Only if it also applies to Tom Izzo and… wait for it… Bob Knight.
Agree and agree….I guess we need to add Dean Smith as well.
At age 37, the phenom grant hill is phoenix suns best defender. Last year, the suns made it all the way to the western conference finals against the lakers. And we swept the san antonio spurs along the way!
Paleo: Only if it also applies to Tom Izzo and… wait for it…Bob Knight.
Agree and agree….I guess we need to add Dean Smith as well. ·Mar 16 at 5:21pm
Yeah, probably John Thompson & John (nutjob) Cheney too.
Who’s at the other end of the spectrum? To start, I nominate Calipari, Tark, & Dana Kirk.
Who’s at the other end of the spectrum? To start, I nominate Calipari, Tark, & Dana Kirk.
If we’re discussing other ends of the spectrum, may I suggest Geno Auriemma and Pat Summitt? (Trust me, it’s not a girl’s bball thing, it’s a winning thing….)
Who’s at the other end of the spectrum? To start, I nominate Calipari, Tark, & Dana Kirk.
Fair enough, Elizabeth. I considered giving Kennedy a hard time about his picks on another thread:
Mine were too easy. It’s obviously going to be a Tennessee-Vanderbilt final.
I wanted to ask if that final was a late 80’s, early 90’s women’s projection.
Pat and Geno are winners to be sure. As long as they don’t badmouth Jalen Rose… I’m a fan.
I don’t have much to add to this conversation–I won’t until I see the context of that clip–I have to say that I’m enjoying this celebration of basketball brilliance.
Ditto!
Now that Jalen Rose is successful. Do you think he’d be surprised to learn there might be some black kid who resented Rose for that success?
Now that Jalen Rose is successful. Do you think he’d be surprised to learn there might be some black kid who resented Rose for that success?
Grant Hill is a phenomenally class act and always has been. He’s a gifted athlete and a modest, good-hearted, thoroughly decent human being. A mensch, in other words, and a credit to all of us Dukies.
Rose’s name-calling is exactly what Sowell and Williams decry, the “acting white” epithet that cripples so many young black men. It’s fantastic to see this argument so publicly, and Hill’s response is so firm and disciplined, yet graceful.