Jalen Rose and the Fab Five used the huge platform of ESPN to tell a story of the iconic Michigan basketball team. Controversy surrounded the special when the Fab Five referred to their Duke rivals as “bitches” and calling the black male basketball players that attended Duke “Uncle Toms”. Grant Hill, a 1994 Duke graduate and current Phoenix Sun, used a large platform of his own, The New York Times, to respond to Rose’s comments. Looks like Hill has gotten the best of the Fab Five, yet again.
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 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.
Read the entire response on the New York Times website.
About Mike Johnson