Of Life and Basketball

For those who read my blog, I sincerely apologize for taking a couple months off. I love to write and think and converse (if only with myself--ha) For whatever reason, I had neither the energy nor the passion to write much recently. I hope to return to my regular weekly writings. I begin here with a heart-felt commentary on two things that I am truly passionate about basketball and humanity.

Early this week, ESPN ran a documentary entitled, "The Fab Five." If you have not seen the special, I highly recommend it. It tells the story of the five great basketball players who came to the University of Michigan in the early 1990's. The documentary includes interviews with four of the five players who are now grown men, retired from the NBA and working in various careers. The interviews are strikingly honest, powerful and a great testament to many things such as racism, materialism and how people grow over time.

During the interviews, some harsh things are said. Specifically, there are some harsh things said about how the Michigan players perceived Duke's basketball program and the men who were playing at the time. At one point, Jalen Rose states that he thought that the black players who played for Duke were "Uncle Tom's." I firmly believe that he said this to speak honestly about his perception at the time. I didn't not get the idea that Jalen still believes this today. But, of course, we live in a time when the media is going to do anything possible to sensationalize something like this. In the days following the documentary, there were several references to the story as well as the disparaging comments that were made.

Then, yesterday, Grant Hill, a player from Duke wrote a response to the film, the rivalry between Duke and Michigan at the time and, especially, Jalen's comments. The article is very well written and I commend it to you. I will include a link to Hill's article at the bottom of my blog entry.

I am Duke graduate and a great fan of Duke basketball. So what I feel that what I have to say here is important. I can honestly say that I thought that documentary was very well done. I was especially impressed by the players and how they shared both their memories of being "The Fab Five" and their present feelings about all this. I was moved by Jalen's honesty in sharing his story even though he was saying some unhappy things about his youthful perception of my Alma Mater.

In fact, I heard in his voice a painful expression of how we as human beings we sometimes judge things that we know little or nothing about. Of course, Jalen and his teammates were judged as well. They were stereotyped and received criticism for simply being something other than what people were used to seeing in college basketball at the time. This was partly about race but a lot of it had more to do with changing attitudes in our culture.

The really tough part in all of this is seeing how we as people come to resent and distrust one another simply because we appear to be different. In this case, a young black man from a poor community apparently resented a young black man from an affluent community. Of course, today, Jalen Rose is very wealthy. And I believe that he sees the irony here. In that, the very things that he might have once thought about Grant Hill and his parents could now be said about his own family.

My hope is that these two men speak to one another and soon. I suspect that everything that we have seen and heard over the last few days is just another example of how the media twists things into serving its own interest. Nevertheless, these are the very opportunities where we as people need to be clear. Even though this has probably been a very stressful week for past players from both Duke and Michigan, I suspect that it might be a unique time for a teaching moment.

Young people can learn something from all this. We all can. The fact is that Grant Hill and Jalen Rose are not so different. The same goes for our own rivals. I think often of Larry Bird and Magic Johnson. These two men probably despised one another on the court. They played hard against one another and certainly wanted to win. But in the end of the day, they respected one another greatly. They each appreciated where the other had come from and what they had accomplished. Mutual respect is one of the great contributions of athletic competition. It is also a fundamental building block in a decent society.

Here is the link to Grant Hill's response to Rose's comments:
http://thequad.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/16/grant-hills-response-to-jalen-rose/