Duke ‘Uncle Toms’ and, to some degree, disparaging my parents for their education, work ethic and commitment to each other and to me,” said Hill, who now plays for the Phoenix Suns.
Calvin Hill, a Yale graduate, had a successful NFL career as a running back for the Dallas Cowboys. His wife is an attorney.
Rose said his father was an NBA player who had no role in his life. Largely left out of the public controversy was the clear impression that Rose hungered for a family unit that included his father. Without that, however, he played on his image of a kid who grew up on the rough streets of Chicago.
Michael Wilbon, who covered both Hill and Rose as a columnist for the Washington Post and now shares duties with Rose as ESPN commentators, knows both men well.
“Trust me, Grant Hill and Jalen Rose ain’t all that different,” Wilbon wrote. “They’re a lot more alike than they are dissimilar, even if they did come from different sides of the tracks. And, right now, way too much is being made of the fact that they did. Calvin Hill, Grant’s father, was no more an ‘Uncle Tom’ for providing every opportunity and advantage for his kids than Rose would be now for providing every opportunity and advantage for his. It’s called the American Dream, and the only real difference here is the Hills grabbed hold of it a generation before the Roses.”
New York Times columnist Bill Rhoden, a graduate of Morgan State University, in Baltimore, had an interesting take on the war of words.
My view about the Fab Five, then and now, was that these young men had chosen the right pew but had gone to the wrong church. Seen through the prism of Black power and empowerment, and also from the point of view of one who attended a Black college, the Fab Five had simply made a wealthy white institution wealthier and had missed a grand opportunity to catapult a historically Black college or university to the mountaintop of March Madness.”
He continued, “Did Rose have any idea of the impact they would have had on history had they elected to attend a historically Black college or university? Yes, the stage would have been smaller, television nonexistent, at first. But the novelty of their act and then the courage of what they represented would have attracted attention. The Fab Five would have been the story of March Madness, not simply a spectacle.”
George E. Curry, former editor-in-chief of Emerge magazine and the NNPA News Service, is a keynote speaker, moderator, and media coach. He can be reached through his website, www.georgecurry.com You can also follow him at www.twitter.com/currygeorge.
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