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Jalen Rose stands by his Duke comments: ‘I’ve never seen Coach K in Detroit’

Mar 15, 2011, 12:19 PM EDT

18 Comments
jalenrosefirsttake

Video below of an appearance by Jalen Rose and Jimmy King on ESPN’s First Take this morning, explaining their earlier comments about Duke’s recruiting methods, and the term “Uncle Tom,” which Rose leveled at black Duke players during filming of ESPN’s Fab Five documentary. It’s an interesting give-and-take, but unfortunately marked with the unwillingness of Skip Bayless to ask the pertinent question of Rose: “Do you THINK TODAY that Duke’s black players are Uncle Toms?”

Because Rose dances around that question with every interview. He always falls back on the “That’s what I thought when I was 17″ line, but never reveals if he thinks that now. Then he typically launches into all the reasons that Duke today doesn’t recruit “B level” black players from poorer backgrounds.

Rose: “Now I understand what [the Duke] program represents. … I get all that. But the bottom line is that they do recruit only a certain kind of player.”

Uncle Toms?

“That’s what I thought when I was 17 …” (Repeat as necessary).

Then, toward the end: “I haven’t seen Coach K in Detroit. But that’s just me.”

Kerosene, meet fire. Anyway, here’s the interview (if video isn’t working, see the interview at this link):

The Rose quote which most sticks with me is this: “The term Uncle Tom, in essence, if you look it up, the definition is a person who is subservient to whites.” Interestingly, while most dictionaries indeed define Uncle Tom as a servile black man and that’s how most would define it today, that’s not how the author, Harriet Beecher Stowe, wrote the character in Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Stowe’s Uncle Tom is in reality a noble character who stands up for what he believes and is admired by everyone. People who have read the book know that.

Call it the Fab Four Magical Bitterness Tour. I’m sure there’s more to come.

***
Standing by comments about Duke? [ESPN First Take]

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  1. chicagofan - Mar 15, 2011 at 3:39 PM

    Uncle Tom does not mean “a noble character” to any black person, that’s why it is considered an insult, whether they read the book or not. I think Jalen picked the wrong term, the social class difference of the player’s Duke recruits is what he is referring to. Duke is more like to recruit a middle or working class black player who likely attended a predominantly white ,middle class or higher , high school over an innercity black player from Detroit, NYC or Chicago.The problem I have is that the players Duke recruits , still to do not graduate at the same rate as white students from Duke (even the one’s who do not go to the NBA).

  2. imwhitewolf - Mar 15, 2011 at 3:42 PM

    But the bottom line is that they do recruit only a certain kind of player.”

    Jalen is correct. However Duke is not a public state school. They have much higher academic requirements, My personal opinion is Jalen Rose, Chris Weber and the rest of that Michigan class probably would not get into Duke so why should Coach K and his staff take the time recruiting them. BTW—weren’t all of their records and achievement vacated at Michigan for various cheating. Sounds like sour grapes to me. When one steps back and looks at what Coach K and his Blue Devil teams have accomplished for over thirty years it’s pretty incredible, esp. considering the recruiting pool he has when compared to coaches at state run schools have.

  3. icu84bs - Mar 15, 2011 at 3:51 PM

    I can never understand the media’s adoration of coach K (I guess they love a winner, character seems to matter little). His treatment of officials during a game is shameful and very unsportsman like.

    • ultimatejosh81 - Mar 16, 2011 at 9:44 AM

      R u kidding me? Coach K has more character in his little pinky than you do in your whole body. He helps countless kids and adults every year. He gave money to a guy who needed help with medical bills and flew him to a NC to get treatment for his kid. You obviously don’t watch when Coach K is laughing with the refs about a call that they made. He does yell sometimes so do I, when a call goes the wrong way. That doesn’t mean he doesn’t have character. The reason he is so well liked is he has character and wins. The fact that that comment made it on to a public blog is shameful!

      On the whole Jalen Rose thing, I agree with imwhitewolf all the way. Why waste everyone’s time recruiting players who can’t cut it nor would they be happy at Duke. I can’t imagine Jalen enjoying Duke lifestyle at all. Besides who brags about having been in a real drug house. And just to add schools recruit mainly around their location because those are the kids they get to the school easily. Detroit is not near NC hence I doubt Duke recruits very much there. There last few years of commitments have come from VA, DOC, and some other places thrown in. It would be stupid of them to recruit kids from Canada just because people want them to spread the wealth around.

  4. ladysportsfan11 - Mar 15, 2011 at 5:13 PM

    So first, “Uncle Tom” is not ” in reality a noble character who stands up for what he believes in and is admired by everyone”, hence the slur meaning a black person who is subservient to whites, to the detriment of others. HBS’ intention was to portray ‘happy slaves” but nearly all documented evidence suggests that the happy slave was a myth, or either smiling in their masters face, while slipping poison in the food!

    Now, as to the person who suggests that Rose, Webber etc.. couldn’t have attended Duke – maybe not Jalen Rose, but Chris Webber certainly could have and was recruited by Duke. Poverty does not equal lack of intelligence, and Detroit Country Day is not the stereotypical inner city poorly resourced school.

    People who believe Duke’s program is crystal clean are deluding themselves. They just have more hidden ways to get things to their kids. Not excusing what happened at Michigan, just saying that at Michigan, it was sloppy, at other places, not so much…

  5. goforthanddie - Mar 15, 2011 at 5:51 PM

    “I haven’t seen Coach K in Detroit. But that’s just me.”

    Haven’t seen Jalen Rose near any titles. But that’s just everybody.

  6. dachchow - Mar 15, 2011 at 6:19 PM

    You probably won’t see Coach K in Detroit why ruin a good formula……Grant Hill knows when to call a time out.

  7. pjemmert - Mar 15, 2011 at 8:10 PM

    I’m not gonna get into a shouting contest, or even an argument. All I’m going to say is that if the black kids that play on Duke are “Uncle Toms”, what does that make the white kids that were on the Georgetown roster under John Thompson? There was usually only one on the team, and he usually just sat at the end of the bench. If you don’t believe me, just look at the Hoyas teams from the mid to late 1980′s.

    • mustang6767 - Mar 15, 2011 at 10:21 PM

      I agree 100%. John Thompson was one of the biggest racists to coach in the NCAA in recent memory (if not THE biggest). I have never seen or heard anyone challenge him on that and the hypocrisy of it makes my blood boil. Instead, people would rather point fingers at a coach who runs a clean program with good kids at an Ivy League level academic institution.

      • netpup206 - Jul 1, 2011 at 9:52 AM

        I wonder if you’re white. Scratch that; I already know that you are.

  8. davidly - Mar 15, 2011 at 8:23 PM

    True is true. And they were/are successful at it. Back in the day, the only team I liked less than the Fab Four Wolverines was the Blue Devils, so I’m not desirous to see the messenger killed on this one. Let’s face it, the key to success is money. And it’s easier for Blue Bloods to cover their tracks than it is state unis slumming with the inner city.

    • mustang6767 - Mar 15, 2011 at 10:23 PM

      Until you have some evidence of wrongdoing, you’re just blowing smoke. Put up, or shut up…

      • davidly - Mar 15, 2011 at 10:47 PM

        Pretty funny, coming from someone screaming racist at John Thompson.

  9. poppa5502 - Mar 15, 2011 at 11:14 PM

    Here is the facts..duke is for smarter kids who know how to run a pick and roll..and not dunk over everyone…the sad news is that after a Duke player leave the collage..then that where their Careers end..

  10. sysi45 - Mar 16, 2011 at 1:05 AM

    I grew up in a poor family but attended Catholic schools and in most cases was the only black in the class. I had many white friends and went on to obtain a middle management position in a major corporation. I have been labeled a ‘Tom’ by many blacks to my face and behind my back. Jalen said that many blacks on the Duke team were products of private schools and Coach K did not come to public schools to recruit. Here in New Jersey, he goes to St. Anthony, St. Joseph, St. Patrick and St. Benedick. He does not go to public schools because they do not have the type of player that he wants. These school select the type of players that he is interested in and if they have any problems, they will get dismissed before he gets a chance to see them. In order to stay in those school and get a chance to go to schools like Duke they must be subservient to white people and most blacks would call them Toms.

  11. wowssah - Mar 16, 2011 at 2:37 AM

    Are some of you serious? Did you even watch the documentary? This is not about academics. The entire documentary was about it not being about academics. It’s about image! Duke is certainly great. BUT THE FAB FIVE WENT TO MICHIGAN! Hello. Don’t try to sell it to anyone that these guys were the least bit intelligent or hard workers. Michigan is consistently one of the top public schools in the country. No one would argue that Duke isn’t way up at the top, but Michigan is not a push over.

    If you understood what the Fab Five were saying, instead of just labeling them as being bitter, you’d see the honestly they were trying to give about the image of college basketball. Rose was an honor roll student in high school, and probably could have went to Duke and did fine, regardless if he could have gotten in or not. But the point is that Duke would never have even looked at him! Why? He did great in high school. Because he grew up in an area, with a family, that did not offer the same opportunities as others had growing up in an affluent professional family/neighborhood.

    It’s not the fact that they’re bitter old men. They’re telling their story from their point of view because they actually lived it. Jalen came from Detroit, in an area that because of where he’s from, NOT how he did in school, would have determined if Duke even looked at him or not.

    So they did what they could at Michigan, and again people don’t get what they’re saying…yes, they lost. Twice. It hurts. Make fun of them, great. They accomplished more at 19 years old than any of us ever will in our lives. But they were NOT going to be the typical run of the mill kid they were supposed to be. They wanted longer shorts, black socks, because that was their style, and they didn’t want to be in an environment where someone told them they couldn’t be who they were, like other schools probably would have done. They created an image. Their own image, instead of taking on the image of what others wanted them to be. That’s the point. They lost TWICE. And still, you can remember every single one of the Fab Five’s names. Because they engraved their brand into your brain, being exactly who they were.

    So all of you calling them bitter, and stupid, and they couldn’t get into Duke, and smarted black kids know when to not call a timeout…shut up. You’re not even listening your mind is so narrow.

  12. latrobe21 - Mar 16, 2011 at 11:17 AM

    I guess Jalen REALLY, REALLY wanted that scholarship to Duke. I wouldn’t set foot in Detroit for any reason, either – it’s a third-world city.

  13. xsdv8 - Mar 17, 2011 at 11:09 AM

    What a joke this whole pile of crap is. The group should be remembered as the Thug-Five and in light of their cheating and otherwise thuggish behavior, why should any “news” organization give them a minutes worth of desperation limelight. When you’re a washed up never-was, I guess you have to stir the pot to try to make people think you’re relevant again. What better way for a black person to do that than to whine about racism? Coach K recruits the players he can coach. Inner city thugs more interested in swagger and me-gimme-mine are not coachable. Maybe they have mad talent, but who cares what kind of dunk abilities they have if they get your program on NCAA probation? Coach K is a realist and has no intention of tarnishing his reputation just to recruit in Detroit or anywhere else that the Jalen Rose’s of the world come from. Obviously, he does quite well with who he recruits, since his teams are always in the final mix. The “Fab Five” didn’t win it, Coach K’s Uncle Tom’s and friends did. The next year, Webber proved he could only count money in his bank account and not how many time outs he had. FAB?…I think not.

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