NBA PM: Hill Responds to Rose
A documentary about “The Fab Five” is a no-brainer. America loved watching the Wolverines, arguing about them, and adjusting their shorts based on what how they perceived Steve Fisher’s legendary recruiting class.
So it should come as no surprise that ESPN’s documentary on the subject has sparked its own controversy. The film—which is creatively titled “The Fab Five”—features its producer, former Michigan Wolverines point guard Jalen Rose, making some racial comments about legendary Duke forward Grant Hill. Today Hill, who is now a forward for the Suns, responded with a letter in The New York Times.
But before we get to that, here are Rose’s original comments about Hill, Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski and Michigan’s opponents in the 1992 NCAA Men’s Basketball Finals.
“For me, Duke was personal,” Rose said in the documentary. “I hated Duke and I hated everything I felt Duke stood for. Schools like Duke didn’t recruit players like me. I felt like they only recruited players that were like ‘Uncle Toms.’
“I was jealous of [Duke forward] Grant Hill,” Rose continued. “He came from a great black family. Congratulations. Your mom went to college and was roommates with Hillary Clinton. Your dad played in the NFL and is a very well-spoken and successful man. I was upset and bitter that my mom had to bust her hump for 22 years. I was bitter that I had a professional athlete that was my father [former Pistons top pick Jimmy Walker] that I didn’t know. I resented that more so than I resented him.”
To be fair, a lot of the controversy surrounding Rose’s comments were generated by people who didn’t read both paragraphs. After the documentary premiered last week, most people focused on Rose’s first paragraph and ignored his explanation in the second.
In any case, Hill finally responded today:
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. 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.”
Hill clearly still considers himself a friend to Rose, Chris Webber, Juwan Howard, Jimmy King and Ray Jackson, but he definitely takes pride in having beaten that team in the finals.
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"
It’s a good read, and definitely worth your time.
I think what I like best about the dialogue between the two players is that, even if they are disagreeing, it’s interesting to see how close everyone still is. The basketball world seems so big, but Hill really has known most of the Fab Five since they were 13 years old. And even if they still harbor resentment from 1992, everyone can still agree that it was a special time for the sport.
Three’s Company in LA?
Kevin Johnson’s reputation as defender hasn’t been helped by his tenure as Mayor of Sacramento. The three-time All-Star is seemingly unequipped to stop the Kings from moving to Anaheim, which means there would be three teams playing in two neighboring Southern California counties. (This is par for the course for the Kings, who have also played in Rochester, Cincinnati, Omaha and Kansas City before moving to Sacramento in 1985)
From the league’s perspective, it’s not such a bad thing. The populations of Sacramento and Anaheim are about the same, but the move gives the Kings the ability to get out of the outdated ARCO Arena and into the more modern Honda Center, which is currently the home of the Anaheim Ducks.
“Honda Center is a nice building,” Nets point guard Jordan Farmar told HOOPSWORLD.
Farmar played high school, college and pro basketball in Los Angeles, and thinks Anaheim is a fine place for an NBA team.
“It’s still pretty far [from Los Angeles],” Farmar said. “I would assume [there's enough fans for both teams], but that’s pretty far away. That’s almost to Philly from here—something like that. It’s far enough to where it’s possible.”
“I think that would be crazy—three in one city—having to deal with all that traffic, stuff like that,” Clippers rookie Al Farouq Aminu told HOOPSWORLD. “But if that’s the case [and the Kings would play in Anaheim], they may be all right then.
“Anaheim is a whole lot different—it’s not LA,” he continued. “People [in Southern California] like basketball and there’s a lot of people.”
Still, some think that three teams in such a small area can’t work.
“I don’t think so,” Clippers rookie Eric Bledsoe said. “It happens and you just got to deal with it.”
Even the idea of shorter road trips wasn’t enough to entice Bledsoe.
“That’s kind of good,” he said. “It’s good when you don’t have to fly, but I’d rather fly [to Sacramento] than take a bus [to Anaheim].”
Having three teams in such close proximity would create something similar to the “Texas Triangle” which consists of the Rockets, Spurs and Mavericks. That could potentially save teams from taking multiple plane rides to the region each season. Of course, NBA players aren’t just happy to take Sacramento off their itineraries. They’d also like to make as many trips to LA as they can.
“No, as many trips to LA as possible is good,” Farmar said. “That’s home so I want to go as much as possible.”
{AUTHOR_BOX}Check Out: The NCAA Tournament (not) on CBS
Americans had only a passing interest in the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament before Larry Bird’s Indiana State Sycamores and Magic Johnson’s Michigan State Spartans met in the 1979 Final. That game—which is still the highest rated in the history of college basketball—is often credited as the birth of “Mach Madness.”
Of course that historical anecdote, like many others, is an oversimplification. Truthfully, March Madness really picked up steam once CBS bought the television rights before the 1982 season. Prior to that, the first few rounds were played out on the pages of newspapers before CBS and a young cable network called ESPN began airing the first weekend of the tournament. Suddenly fans from across the country were exposed to something that had once been regionalized. Sure, NBC aired some of the games in the 70s, but they were never able to create that coast-to-coast basketball experience.
As most of you know, CBS is no longer the exclusive rights holder of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament because Turner is bringing its year’s of NBA experience into the college arena. That means legendary broadcasters like Marv Albert, Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith and Ernie Johnson will finally be confronted with the word “Krzyzewski.”
Something called “truTV” will broadcast UT-San Antonio vs. Alabama St. tonight at 6:40 PM, which will be followed by VCU vs. USC at 9:10. TBS will make it’s NCAA Tournament debut on Thursday when they present Louisville-Morehead St. at 1:40; and TNT will broadcast it’s first March Madness game, Temple vs. Penn St., at 2:10.
Of course, CBS is still the primary rights holder, so don’t expect to watch Turner Networks throughout the tournament. The current agreement will run through 2024 and it was designed to show all of the games on national cable television.
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