Say what you will about Michigan’s Fab Five, but you can’t deny that they’ve proven they can still command the spotlight. Front and center have been the comments made by four members of that Wolverines team concerning Duke. In part I of ESPN’s Fab Five documentary on Sunday, Jimmy King is quoted as saying “I thought Christian Laettner was a bi***. I thought Grant Hill was a bi***.” Hill was not amused, as it turns out.
In fact, SportsbyBrooks is reporting that Hill was so upset by King’s comment that he’s writing an editorial for the New York Times. In it, he will write that he thinks King stabbed him in the back.
I’ve been told that Hill notes in the N.Y. Times article that King’s unflattering remark about him was particularly disappointing because he considered King a friend. In fact, Hill reveals in his editorial that he thought so much of King that he repeatedly lobbied then-Pistons GM Rick Sund not to cut the former Wolverine at the end of training camp in ‘99. (Hill’s efforts turned out to be futile, as King was released before the season.)
Thanks to King’s insult, Hill concludes in the NYT piece that he would not have been nearly so enthusiastic in attempting to save King’s failed NBA career had he known that a decade later his former rival — and brief teammate — would treat him with such disrespect.
Former Duke guard Bobby Hurley has already gone on the record in response to Jalen Rose and the other Fab Fivers. But he didn’t sound nearly as miffed as Hill appears to be. Anyway, it’s clear to me that someone needs to sit down with all the former players from both teams and write a book about how they feel about the rivalry today. I think I’d read that.
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Bobby Hurley on Fab Five: ‘Jalen Rose would not have played at Duke’ [Off the Bench]
Jimmy King: ‘I thought Christian Laettner was a bi***’ [Off the Bench]
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- BC - Mar 16, 2011 at 12:32 PM
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The Fab Five were punks then, and they’re punks now. Not that I’m in any way a Duke fan (go UConn) but the Fab Five’s collective IQ doesn’t add up to Grant Hill’s. I mean, Chris Webber is the only one of them that is seemingly able to carry on a conversation without sounding like a doofus or sounding like they live on the street. The ESPN show was horrid. Why they gave these punks air time is beyond me. Glad at least Webber had the sense not to participate.
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- massivedick - Mar 16, 2011 at 2:57 PM
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problem is that was what king thought “then” … not necessarily now. i thought anyone that looked like a choir boy and hand a name like Christian was a pussy too.
i appreciate their honesty … except webber … dude no showed .. he is still a punk
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- agelardi - Mar 16, 2011 at 2:03 PM
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But those bi***es beat you in ’92 didn’t they?
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- henryd3rd - Mar 16, 2011 at 4:37 PM
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It is such a sad commentary that twenty years later these brothers are still bitter. It was a basketball game and it should not have been the defining moment in their lives; but they have made just that. It just goes to show how much of their lives were basketball and basketball still paramount in their lives. Marriages, children, family and friends should have replaced basketball by now; but that is what they are hanging onto.
I wonder if twenty years from now will that game still be paramount in their lives?
