Grant Hill Responds to Fab Five Documentary

http://thequad.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/16/grant-hills-response-to-jalen-rose/

This is why he's Grant Hill.

If I'm Coach K I send this letter to every black recruit I have to show why Duke is different.

Outstanding response!

Grant Hill was certainly raised right.

Thank you for this piece, "Clyde".

Dummies don't get into Duke. I'm not surprised to read such a well thought out and informed response from the Duke grad. Great read.

Well done by Grant Hill.

Class act.

Well thought out and well written article. I liked the ending.:lol:

I'll add that I liked Bobby Hurley and Christian Laettner's responses as well. I thought former Duke players handled themselves well.

Very powerful response by Grant Hill. I've always enjoyed him as a player. I love this...

"And, I am proud I never lost a game against the Fab Five."

WOW, that is awesome, I am a Grant Hill fan for sure now!

I moved this in here to evolve this conversation a little more.

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.

How far off base is Jalen in his assessment? Is it totally baseless? And in fairness to Rose, it was from the perspective of a 17, 18 year old kid. He has said he does not hold the same resentment as he once did towards Hill or Duke.

Grant Hill is being way too sensitive here. His response was incredibly written and very well thought out. However, was it necessary? It is clear from the documentary that King and Rose were merely stating how they felt at the time of their recruitment and time at Michigan. That was 20 years ago. Rose has stated in numerous interviews about how his perspective was way off base, and all the respect that he had for Grant Hill and his family. King and Hill were friends.

Hill's response was all about ego, and allowing the media to gode him into responding before he had watched the documentary. He did not have the context of the questions. Rose was co-executive producer, so maybe he should have edited it better to give context. However, the Duke players need to get some perspective. Why respond to it? If you are asked the question just say, "It was 20 years ago. Opinions change, records don't."

Wel...........I do not think Jalen Rose exactly helped himself in the follow up interview. Comments such as I don't see Coach K in Detroit...............And he does not recruit those types of players because he does not want to see rings and jersies being sold.....................etc..................That to me shows he still feels some of the same feelings towards Duke.

He also mentioned that Coach K would never recruit him but he would recruit his kids (the connotation being that they are more affluent African Americans and more well spoken than he was).

Grant Hill is being way too sensitive here. His response was incredibly written and very well thought out. However, was it necessary? It is clear from the documentary that King and Rose were merely stating how they felt at the time of their recruitment and time at Michigan. That was 20 years ago. Rose has stated in numerous interviews about how his perspective was way off base, and all the respect that he had for Grant Hill and his family. King and Hill were friends.

 

Hill's response was all about ego, and allowing the media to gode him into responding before he had watched the documentary. He did not have the context of the questions. Rose was co-executive producer, so maybe he should have edited it better to give context. However, the Duke players need to get some perspective. Why respond to it? If you are asked the question just say, "It was 20 years ago. Opinions change, records don't."

First, I'll admit I couldn't stand the Fab 5, as I can't stand the trash talking mentality that they help usher into college basketball. I get the whole "get in their head" argument; I just find it to be garbage. If you aren't good enough to beat a team without using that garbage, lose with class and move on. I lost a lot of respect for Michigan as an academic institution when they permitted that garbage to happen.

The "uncle Tom" comment may have reflected the thinking of teen agers, but when Rose decided to keep it in the documentary, I think it mandated some response by Hill and others. Kudos to Hill. Playing with class and dignity should be demanded of everyone on all levels, regardless of one's upbringing. To "excuse it" because of one's socio-economic situation or family situation is a simply wrong in my opinion and only helps perpetuate it because it is tolerated.

I know there will be some that tell me I can't understand kids with that background because I didn't grow up in it. All I know is that I served in the Marines with a lot of teenaged young men from broken and disadvantages situations like the Fab 5 and that garbage was not tolerated. Once that was made clear to them, they quickly adjusted and changed their behavior just fine.

Wel...........I do not think Jalen Rose exactly helped himself in the follow up interview. Comments such as I don't see Coach K in Detroit...............And he does not recruit those types of players because he does not want to see rings and jersies being sold.....................etc..................That to me shows he still feels some of the same feelings towards Duke.

 

He also mentioned that Coach K would never recruit him but he would recruit his kids (the connotation being that they are more affluent African Americans and more well spoken than he was).

That is sort of the point I was getting across. While I think Rose has backed off his statement that these kids are "Uncle Toms", he has not backed off the notion that Duke predominately only recruits "affluent" African American players.

First, I'll admit I couldn't stand the Fab 5, as I can't stand the trash talking mentality that they help usher into college basketball. I get the whole "get in their head" argument; I just find it to be garbage. If you aren't good enough to beat a team without using that garbage, lose with class and move on. I lost a lot of respect for Michigan as an academic institution when they permitted that garbage to happen.

 

The "uncle Tom" comment may have reflected the thinking of teen agers, but when Rose decided to keep it in the documentary, I think it mandated some response by Hill and others. Kudos to Hill. Playing with class and dignity should be demanded of everyone on all levels, regardless of one's upbringing. To "excuse it" because of one's socio-economic situation or family situation is a simply wrong in my opinion and only helps perpetuate it because it is tolerated.

 

I know there will be some that tell me I can't understand kids with that background because I didn't grow up in it. All I know is that I served in the Marines with a lot of teenaged young men from broken and disadvantages situations like the Fab 5 and that garbage was not tolerated. Once that was made clear to them, they quickly adjusted and changed their behavior just fine.

I agree to what you said. However, this was a retrospective documentary that asked 39 year-old men to relate how they felt 20 years ago. Had Rose said that he still felt that way, then yeah, Hill should rip into him. Beyond that, I think that this is something that was hyped by the media and a much smaller deal than ESPN and others are trying to make it.

I agree to what you said. However, this was a retrospective documentary that asked 39 year-old men to relate how they felt 20 years ago. Had Rose said that he still felt that way, then yeah, Hill should rip into him. Beyond that, I think that this is something that was hyped by the media and a much smaller deal than ESPN and others are trying to make it.

Perhaps. Since I didn't watch the entire documentary ( I had to turn it off because it seemed to glorify the trash talking garbage), I have to ask you this question: did Rose and the other members of the Fab 5 in the documentary state that what they thought, as teenagers, about Duke and the Duke players was wrong and they recanted calling them uncle Toms? If they did and such was emphasized as much as what they thought and felt as teenagers, then I might agree with your thinking. Did that occur? It may have been a retrospective documentary but the Fab 5 was interviewed extensively as adults and they each had ample opportunity to state what they felt as teenagers was wrong.