On Sunday, ESPN aired its documentary The Fab Five, a film that digs into the background of Michigan basketball team from 1991 to 1993 and its star players Jalen Rose (pictured above left), Juwan Howard, Chris Webber, Jimmy King and Ray Jackson. In the documentary, the players expressed their disdain for Duke University and their basketball program back in 1991.
These teenagers thought of Duke as a school for Uncle Toms, they thought former Duke Blue Devil and current Phoenix Suns player Grant Hill (pictured above right) was a bi**h and felt slighted that they weren't the type of players that Duke would ever want on their team. And they resented that.
But in an opinion column written by Grant Hill and published by the New York Times, Hill admits to being disappointed by the comments toward him and his Duke teammates in the documentary.
"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 bitch 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," Hill said in the op-ed. "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."
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For the record, Jalen Rose did say he doesn't feel that way today and that those were his feelings when he was a teenager. Hill continues in his column about how he was raised, his family history, his experience as a Duke student and the relationship with his teammates.
Besides Hill not really acknowledging that these were feelings these players had for him and Duke more than 20 years ago, he really ignores one of the biggest accusations Jalen Rose made in the film -– that Duke University refuses to go to the hood to recruit players. The ideas that Duke only recruits players from two-parent homes who grew up in the suburbs are what fueled contempt among black players in the NCAA, and largely among black NCAA fans. This is an image that has been with Duke for years. It's an image that says, if you don't come from a two-parent home in the suburbs, you aren't good enough. You are less-than. You are ghetto. You can't represent Duke.
That's what Grant Hill should have addressed in his column, instead of ripping a 19-year-old Jalen Rose and talking about his upbringing, which most basketball fans are already familiar with. Then the parting shot at the end the column, "And, I am proud I never lost a game against the Fab Five"... well... King did think he was a bi**h.
