Grant Hill response to the Fab Five

[SunCoastSooner]

http://thequad.blogs.nytimes.com/201...to-jalen-rose/

Grant Hill’s Response to Jalen Rose
By GRANT HILL
“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 ***** 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

[MgoBlue-LightSpecial]

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.

That's all he had to say, really.

[SunCoastSooner]

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.

That's all he had to say, really.

He could have said something else which is what I was thinking when I watched the program but it would have sounded a lot less classy.

[King Crimson]

the last line about never losing, seemed a little over the top. but, hey, why not?

[Shoalzie]

I've yet to watch the Fab Five documentary...got it on my TiVo. That was a great time to follow college hoops but the stain on the Fab Five from the crap Webber got involved with turned me off from the program for a while. I'm just now back to being all in with Michigan hoops. I'm sure there will be a lot of stuff in that documentary that will bring back some great memories. That 2-year run when the entire group was together was amazing to watch regardless of what happened in the two title games.

[Goober McTuber]

Rack Grant Hill.

[Screw_Michigan]

Rack Grant Hill.

RACIST.

[Goober McTuber]

Rack Grant Hill.

RACIST.

IDIOT.

[Screw_Michigan]

T1B Stupidity Level: Gobbles Meltdown Level.

[Goober McTuber]

T1B Stupidity Level: Gobbles Meltdown Level.

Me calling you an idiot is a meltdown? No, it's belaboring the obvious.

[War Wagon]

Good read.

[Goober McTuber]

Good read.

Thanks.

Oh, you meant what Grant Hill wrote? Never mind.

[FLW Buckeye]

the last line about never losing, seemed a little over the top. but, hey, why not?

Nothing more than a "Nanenanebobo" with much more class than Rose projected.

Rack him.

[M Club]

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.

That's all he had to say, really.

he could have added something about being overly sensitive. reminds me of those people who get offended if someone says neegar during a discussion on the use of neegar. granted, the promos seemed to push this idea of uncle toms, but the show was exploring how they felt at the time, not now. they weren't grown men calling grant hill a bitch, they were grown men telling people why they hated duke. they weren't good reasons, but they were honest, and it added quite a bit to the story, for both those who appreciated the greasers vs. socs angle and those who thought they got their comeuppance.

[M Club]

I'm just now back to being all in with Michigan hoops.

the lingering taste of ed martin turned you off to tommy amaker, eh.

[smackaholic]

grant should have come back with something like 'it's not that duke only recruits uncle toms, they just don't recruit nigggers.

as much as i detest duke, i respect them. coach K is arguably the best college coach in history. his ability to recruit and more importantly retain players in an era where college stars rarely last past their sophomore season is amazing. it's no accident. dude goes after good kids from good families. he realizes that ghetto rat ballers might have ridiculous skills, but, if they have any success at all their frosh year, they're one and done, maybe two, if they are lucky. UConn owes both it's titles to superstars deciding to come back even though they could be lottery picks (hamilton and oakafor).

[indyfrisco]

I like this thread, hand wringers be damned.

[M Club]

who's wringing their hands?

[Screw_Michigan]

Don't mind him, M Club. Just his standard auto-bot response to what he perceives as liberalism and political correctness on the board.

[King Crimson]

anyone who has spent time in Durham, NC....at Duke or not....is not going to mistake class/race as a non-issue. i suspect Grant wasn't living large at the coffee shops and veggie black bean soup restaurants on 9th street inna day.

Chapel Hill is way more "effete" than Durham as a community. Sure, Duke is an island of white privilege....but not Uncle Tom Island. It is the South, maybe Grant should make some "Jew" jokes about Michigan and Ann Arbor.

[SunCoastSooner]

anyone who has spent time in Durham, NC....at Duke or not....is not going to mistake class/race as a non-issue. i suspect Grant wasn't living large at the coffee shops and veggie black bean soup restaurants on 9th street inna day.

Chapel Hill is way more "effete" than Durham as a community. Sure, Duke is an island of white privilege....but not Uncle Tom Island. It is the South, maybe Grant should make some "Jew" jokes about Michigan and Ann Arbor.

Durham is a bastion of white privilege? Maybe surrounding the Duke Campus... spend a week at Hillside and tell me about it being a white privilege community. Every time we ever had a sporting competition at that school my first two years of high school I thought we needed armed security guards.

[King Crimson]

that's kinda my point. Durham is pretty rough with the exception of the area immediately around Duke. all you have to do is hit the ABC state-run liquor stores to get a snapshot of local demographics.

[MgoBlue-LightSpecial]

Now Coach K getting his shots in...

"We were very successful against them and, to be quite frank with you, we recruited Chris Webber," he said. "I didn't recruit Jalen Rose because we had Grant Hill and I'm happy with that. We didn't look at the other, Juwan Howard [because] we knew he wasn't going to come to Duke. The other two kids we didn't think were the caliber that could play as well as Thomas Hill and Brian Davis and Billy McCaffery. They're good kids. They were good kids."

"They had a heck of a run but, they didn't leave anything, they didn't establish anything there," Krzyzewski said. "The guys that I had established something that Jay Williams continued to do 10 years later -- the standards of what it meant to be a Duke basketball player."

Btw, Jalen Rose was tooling around in an Uncle Tom suburb of Detroit and was arrested on drunk driving charges two days before his documentary aired. Great job by everyone involved keeping that under wraps in order to keep the hype machine going.

[Mace]

Rack Coach K.

[Screw_Michigan]

Btw, Jalen Rose was tooling around in an Uncle Tom suburb of Detroit and was arrested on drunk driving charges two days before his documentary aired. Great job by everyone involved keeping that under wraps in order to keep the hype machine going.

That is a LIE and is BULLSHIT. The Freep hates scUM and is out to ruin the athletic department.

Sin,

M Cunt, Tarderine Steve

[M Club]

coach k handled it like a gangsta: talk shit and put homeboys in their place.

grant hill handled it like a bitch: i am too black!

of course jalen got sloshed in wb. further support that his comments reflected how he felt as a teenager: the implication is that his views evolved in concert with personal growth but they actually changed because he himself became a rich black man.

[M Club]

Btw, Jalen Rose was tooling around in an Uncle Tom suburb of Detroit and was arrested on drunk driving charges two days before his documentary aired. Great job by everyone involved keeping that under wraps in order to keep the hype machine going.

That is a LIE and is BULLSHIT. The Freep hates scUM and is out to ruin the athletic department.

Sin,

M Cunt, Tarderine Steve

i know you're skating by on minimum wage and the benevolence of five roommates, so if you want i'll buy you a new saddle for a different pony. i'm sure steve will throw in on one as well. still curious when you're ever going to come clean on the discrepancy between the freep's allegations and the 20 minutes of extra stretching they were ultimately penalized for.

[Screw_Michigan]

Whateves. You were flailing and handwringing that the Freep was out to get scUM football. Are you backing down from that take?

[MgoBlue-LightSpecial]

still curious when you're ever going to come clean on the discrepancy between the freep's allegations and the 20 minutes of extra stretching they were ultimately penalized for.

What were the discrepencies, just out of curiosity? Weren't they hit with 5 violations, including giving false information about compliance?

[M Club]

i said it was a shit hit piece. i was right and you were wrong.

[MgoBlue-LightSpecial]

Wrong about what? I'm simply asking you what the discrepencies were.

[M Club]

sorry, that was directed toward screw.

they were notified of five violations but only busted for four. the fifth, failure to promote an atmosphere of compliance, was basically a result of the free press reporting players were practicing like 8 million hours a week because homeboy who wrote the article was like, uh, you begin your sunday routine at 9 am and are within four feet of schembecheler hall until 10 pm? that's an ncaa violation i'm going to write an expose.

the four they got in trouble for were going over the limits on practice time (since they weren't counting stretching as practice); they had too many coaches because a couple qc guys gave them advice during film sessions, which automatically turned them into coaches or something; blah blah blah about compliance forms and job descriptions; and the student assistant who lied to investigators. there were also coaches or qc staff monitoring summer workouts but i think that was grouped in with that first violation, about practice time.

and the ncaa investigating committee went so far in their report as to poke fun at the freep's investigation.

[indyfrisco]

Sam,

I quit being amazed at that a long time ago. What still does amaze me though is rich white kids who try to look and act ghetto.

[M Club]

What still does amaze me though is rich white kids who try to look and act ghetto.

imagine, kids and youth culture. i'm still amazed at their haircuts, piercings, skateboards, basketball jerseys, and anything else that isn't crew cuts or dockers.