Jalen Rose: I hate Duke because they only recruit well-off black kids or something
I’m a bit late to the game on this story but it’s still making waves around the Intertubes (hat tip to Jon Ham) and I wanted to comment. First, the remarks – via NBC Sports:
Theyβre college basketballβs most talked about team that never won anything, known as the Fab Five, Michiganβs 1991 recruiting class which included Jalen Rose, Jimmy King, Ray Jackson, Chris Webber and Juwan Howard. Interesting to see that 18 years later, they still harbor some bitterness over what they werenβt able to accomplish. With special acrimony still reserved for Duke. Rose, King and Jackson appeared on ESPNβsΒ First Take this morning to discussΒ 30 for 30βs documentary on the Fab Five that will air on Sunday Β [March 13th. – ST].
About midway through theΒ First Take segment, they played a clip from the documentary in which Rose says:
βFor me, Duke was personal. I hated Duke. And I hated everything I felt Duke stood for. Schools like Duke didnβt recruit players like me. I felt like they only recruited black players that were Uncle Toms.β
Asked about the comment, Rose didnβt exactly backtrack, but elaborated:
βWell, certain schools recruit a typical kind of player whether the world admits it or not. And Duke is one of those schools. They recruit black players from polished families, accomplished families. And thatβs fine. Thatβs okay. But when youβre an inner-city kid playing in a public school league, you know that certain schools arenβt going to recruit you. Thatβs one. And Iβm okay with it. Thatβs how I felt as an 18-year-old kid.β
See theΒ First Take interview video here.
Hard to know where to start here. First, obviously youβre not βokay with it,β because if you were you wouldnβt still sound so bitter. For their parts, King and Jackson agreed, Jackson saying that he appreciates now βwhat [Duke] has accomplished,β but he still hates them.
Whether or not you are a Duke fan, and I know a lot of you probably aren’t, the comments are pretty outrageous. Β Sadly, Rose – who was the documentary’s executive producer Β and who is also a commentator for ESPN – is not the only member of the “Fab Five” to go down this road. Β More on that later.
It should be noted that Duke actively recruited fellow Michigan malcontent Chris Webber, who amplified and supported Rose’s comments here. Β Β This part was especially funny – for reasons I’ll explain in a minute:
Now for the βfireβ part of my analogy, the reality. It is true during the time Rose was being recruited (91) , players from the Fab 5 werenβt heavily recruited from Duke, and they were the top players of the country! Why is that? Is it because Coach K came from that Army/Coach Bob Knight dictatorial, disciplined style of coaching he didnβt think was conducive for the Fab-5? Or was it because the Fab-5 were the first of its kind: hip hop listening, baggy shorts-wearing, trash-talking ballers from the urban city? Coach K mustβve been afraid for his life that these potential malcontents were thugs and killers.
What’s funny about that is that Webber, who likes to pretend he’s “street”, was never a ‘street thug’ himself – he went to private school:
And this is the most important question β would Webber have been able to live with himself had he attended what is widely considered a βwhite schoolβ?Β Sadly, I donβt think so.Β Β Itβs noted in the doc, and notably seen on TV from 1991 to 2005 or so, CWebb was never quite comfortable in his own skin.Β He wanted to be street, and despite growing up in Detroit, he really wasnβt.Β He was a private school kid, and that always bothered him in ways I canβt ever know (widely documented over the years).Β Just watch the doc β itβs clear that he was immature and wasnβt always comfortable in his situation.Β Really interesting dynamic that I canβt solve without a psych degree, but even a layman knows that dude was never quite comfortable.Β And that really bums me out, because he always was one of more eloquent athletes around.Β Would he have been even more uncomfortable at Duke?Β Perhaps, but perhaps not.
One thing’s for sure: Had he gone to Duke, he’d have won the NCAA championship once – and some 30 years later would have had to defend himself from Jalen Rose and other bitter former Michigan players’ accusations that he was an “Uncle Tom.” Β Instead, he and the “Fab Five” got their a**es handed to them four timesΒ by the Blue Devils during that time frame, and none of them achieved any real sports notoriety on the court after that. Β Aww.
Anyway, as to the charge that Coach K and the Duke basketball program is ‘racist’ because they supposedly only recruit black players from well-off black families, Rose hinted around at the reason why that happens but didn’t go full tilt in his explanation: Duke recruits where they’re going to typically find the best not just in terms of playing ability but also in terms of high academic achievement as per the decades-old standards of the school, and more often than not they’re not going to find that from “street kids.” Β But that doesn’t mean they don’t try to recruit kids from “urban areas” – as Dick Vitale pointed out here.
Fox Sports columnist Jason Whitlock slammed this point home here in his written smack down of the Fab Five’s ridiculous playing of the racism/elitism card:
The Fab Five clearly believe Coach K and Duke didnβt and donβt recruit inner-city black kids, and they believe race/racism/elitism are the driving forces behind the philosophy.
Letβs go back to the Fab Five era and Dukeβs philosophy then. Coach K recruited kids who had every intention of staying in school for four years. He recruited kids who had a good chance of competing academically at Duke and could meet the standardized test score qualifications for entrance.
The Fab Five stated it was their intention to win a national championship and turn pro as a group after their sophomore season. Webber, who was recruited by Duke, left Michigan after two years. Rose and Howard left as juniors. Impoverished inner-city kids have good reason to turn pro early. Iβm not knocking Webber, Howard and Rose for their decisions. They didnβt fit the Duke profile at the time.
Furthermore, unlike Steve Fisher at the time, Coach K did more than roll the ball on the court. He coached.
The ideal in college basketball is to lead four-year student-athletes to conference and national championships. Thatβs the goal.
During the three-year run of the Fab Five (one season without Webber), Duke beat Michigan all four times the schools met while winning two ACC titles and one NCAA title. During the same span, Michigan won zero conference or national titles. In addition, Webberβs interactions with booster Ed Martin put the program on probation and caused Michigan to forfeit all its games.
I think Coach K recruited and recruits the right kids for Duke.
Itβs ridiculous for Webber to insinuate that Coach K feared the Fab Five were βthugs and killers.β
Coach K probably thought the same thing I thought watching the Fab Five play: Theyβre immature, arrogant, interested in playing for a coach they could ignore and incapable of putting together the consistent focus and effort necessary to win a conference championship.
Two teams consistently beat the Fab Five β Duke (4-0) and Indiana (4-2).
Let me translate that for you: Structured, disciplined, well-coached teams beat Michigan.
While making money for their white university and allowing their incompetent, white coach to learn on the job, the Fab Five were not man enough to harness the courage and focus to outduel β in their minds β inferior, racist teams.
Now tell me who the sellouts were?
It wasnβt John Thompson, Patrick Ewing or Grant Hill.
Sadly, Rose, Webber, and the rest of the so-called “Fab Five” apparently have issues with prestigious universities making stellar academic records a requirement for entrance into their university. Β It’s all about “diversity”, you see, and a “white team” can only be made Β truly “diverse” if it recruits from black families “in the hood” rather than from those whose children’s academic achievements – and ambitions – are second to none.
How much do you want to bet all of these guys are Democrats?
Living here in NC, home of the Duke Blue Devils – and being a huge fan of them, I’ve heard this accusation either insinuated or outright stated in so many words during the course of many conversations – and usually they come from fans of teams who’ve had a tough time trying to beat the Devils. Β Duke fans have pretty much heard it all about their team, and most of the time they take the teasing in stride, but when this false assertion rears its ugly head, you’ve got no choice but to fight back against it. Β Not only is it an attempt to demean the school, but it’s also an attempt at cheapening the accomplishments of black sports figures at Duke, whether they play basketball or another sport. Β It’s pathetic that Rose and his comrades think so little of black athletes at Duke and other “white universities” and their academic and sports successes that they would suggest/imply that these black athletes were ‘less black’ than they would have been had they been recruited ‘off the streets.’
And on that point, time to turn it over to Washington Post sports columnist Jason Reid:
[…] Rose explained his thinking has changed with maturity, but he seemed to hold firm to his flawed belief that the experiences of some African Americans are βmore blackβ than those of others. The premise, misguided as it is, asserts that academic achievement, professional accomplishment and affluence somehow reduces or eliminates a personβs βblackness.β
Rose isnβt the first to express such thoughts. There has been a long, ongoing debate among black folk about the issues he raised.
As for Roseβs accusations about Duke, he appears to use βUncle Tomβ to refer to Duke players from economically successful two-parent families rather than blacks who act subserviently to whites β the latter being the termβs most offensive and common meaning. I got to know several former Duke players during my time as a NBAΒ beat writer, and none fit the the latter description.
But this is about more than Roseβs inaccurate generalization, which he could not possibly support without knowing the background of every African-American player Krzyzewski has recruited during his more than three decades at the school. Roseβs comments stirred thought on a much bigger issue: What constitutes a βtrueβ black experience?
While covering the 2004 Major League BaseballΒ playoffs, I was involved in a locker-room altercation after former Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Milton Bradley called me an Uncle Tom.
Bradley, who also is black, was upset about my interview questions and attacked me personally with the worst two words one black man can direct at another. I had to be restrained.
The situation still angers me because Bradley essentially was saying I was βless blackβ than he because of his perception about my educational background and job. Presumably, I would have been more black to Bradley if I hadnβt worked hard to excel in school and earned a job at the top of my field.
[…]
Iβm happy my son and daughter live in a two-parent home and that weβre able to provide for them. I take comfort in knowing I have a partner who shares my views on the educational foundation weβre laying for our kids together.
I donβt think that makes me any βless black,β though, than I was when I watched in amazement at how hard my mom worked as a single parent to send three sons to college. I still feel as black as I did when I lived next door to abandoned buildings and held my brothers at night when they were scared by gunfire.
My children wonβt have those experiences. But to imply that because of that, their racial identity is somehow compromised is insulting β not only to them but to all of us who know how our skin color has shaped our lives.
Rose certainly knows what that means, but so does Grant Hill and Elton Brand. Each lived very different lives, but the experience of being black in America is what they β and all African Americans β have in common. Itβs not a measuring stick to tell them apart.
And as a side note, can you imagine what would have happened had a white commentator noted that certain schools only recruited from white families in “urban areas” in order to earn ‘street cred’ with their urban black players? Β Doesn’t even take five seconds to figure out how that would turn out …