"My Fabulous Five Friends"

Grant Hill Goes in on FAB FIVE...and Rightfully So!

The Story (ESPN/NY Times):  Former Duke basketball star Grant Hill called critical comments by former Michigan guard and current ESPN analyst Jalen Rose "sad and somewhat pathetic" in an open letter published Wednesday by The New York Times.

Rose, as part of an ESPN Films documentary "The Fab Five" that aired on Sunday (Rose was an executive producer), said Hill and other black Blue Devils basketball players recruited in the early 1990s were "Uncle Toms."

"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," Rose said in the documentary.

Here is an excerpt from the letter:

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.

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 you back then for your appearance and swagger. I wish for you the restoration of the bond that made you friends, brothers and icons. I hope you reach closure with your university so you will enjoy all the privileges of its greatness.

I try to live my life as a good husband and father. 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.

The Analysis:  You know what Jalen Rose, I hate Puke as well.  I hate Puke because Coach K can...well... coach and he's good at it.  He teaches defense like no other.  He consistently PAYS gets what he wants from the refs.  He always has a shooter (JJ, Langdon, Curry) that does just that...shoot lights out!  They seem to win a national championship right around the time UNC wins so we don't have bragging rights long enough to keep the Jersey Crazies off our backs and finally, he actually looks like a  BLUE DEVIL.  

I can care less of the "Uncle Tom" statuses of their African American Athletes.  Some of them are actually very smart individuals including Jay Bilas (lawyer and ESPN analyst and Grant Hill whose open letter to the New York Times made Jalen and his fab five cohort look uneducated and lacking family structure. 

However, to Jalen's point, they were teenagers when they made those comments.  If you ask me to repeat half of the things I said when I was a teenager about the things I disliked, you might think of me differently (sorry mom and dad).

Nevertheless, you have to give The Fab Five credit because as Grant Hill point's out, "they represented a cultural phenomenon that impacted the country in a permanent and positive way."  But let's also credit Grant Hill for not backing down.  He's been one of the best from a sportsmanship standpoint and he handled the criticism of that documentary very well.