Mike Krzyzewski: The Fab Five ‘didn’t establish anything’ at Michigan
Mar 30, 2011, 10:05 AM EDT
Forgive Mike Krzyzewski for being late to the party on this whole Fab Five ESPN documentary controversy; he’s been kind of busy. But now that Duke has been ousted from the NCAA Basketball Tournament, he thought he’d throw around some opinions about Jalen Rose, Jimmy King and the infamous “Uncle Tom” comment. Krzyzewski visited ESPN Chicago where one of his former players, Jay Williams, was acting as co-host, and the results were somewhat provocative.
Krzyzewski on Rose calling Grant Hill and other black Duke players “Uncle Toms”:
“Sometimes people say things to get attention to sell their documentary. Obviously that was a poor choice of words, and very insulting to everyone here at Duke.
“We recruited Chris Webber, you know, I didn’t recruit Jalen Rose because we had Grant Hill, and I’m happy with that. Juwan Howard we knew wouldn’t come to Duke, and the other two kids we didn’t think were of the caliber who could play here. But they were good kids and had a heck of a run. But they didn’t leave anything, they didn’t establish anything there.”
Williams then asked Krzyzewski why he thought it was that so many people hate Duke. The coach said that a lot of it comes from competitive anger, but that he didn’t think Rose’s comments came from that place.
“When you attack the standards that our guys have had, then that’s a different type of anger, and you should get help. You know, because you’ve got a problem. And it’s not my problem.”
Yes, Jalen Rose “should get help.” Quite a statement from someone who began the interview by saying that he didn;t want to comment on any of this.
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- BC - Mar 30, 2011 at 12:05 PM
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I hate Duke because they kept beating us for years (I’m a UConn fan) but I don’t dis-respect them. Clean program. Great coach.
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- jamie54 - Mar 30, 2011 at 6:19 PM
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Darn right with that. Maybe Rose needs help with his drinking and K stuck the needle in a wee bit. All in good fun, right Jalen? Isn’t that the way you make it look between yourself and Grant Hill? If you can dish it you better be able to take it.
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- evanhartford - Mar 31, 2011 at 10:56 AM
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Actually BC, I’m pretty sure Calhoun has a 3-2 lifetime record against Coach K. Two of those wins resulted in UConn National Championships.
I would have thought Coach K would have taken the high road and I’m a bit disappointed in him.
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- kinggw - Mar 30, 2011 at 5:24 PM
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And Coach K will always be a prick.
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- mostdiggity - Apr 1, 2011 at 9:09 PM
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maybe K thinks Rose is Russian or something.
i’m getting a little tired of these dookies, who are supposed to be smart, confuse the words and issues surrounding this story. one more time: jalen said that the michigan players saw the duke blacks as uncle toms. the word “saw” denotes PAST TENSE, and he made it clear that all grown up, that is not how he sees them today. i’m beginning to wonder if any of them (duke) actually saw the program they’ve been so quick to criticize
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- avermaver - Apr 5, 2011 at 9:36 AM
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fab5 were cool because they had this us against the world vibe whether that was actually based in reality or not. There is nostalgia looking back at them because of all the media hype at the time & that was a time when basketball was taken more seriously. I know the level of douche-bag statistical analysis on sites such as these is at an all time high but do people really take basketball seriously the way they did in the mid-90s? I don’t think so. Kudos to Coach K for telling it like it is, or was. However those guys weren’t at Michigan to “build something”, that’s up to the coach and university. It’s clear from the interviews that the only lasting impact they had in mind was the introduction of black socks and shoes into the college game because it’s just so hiphop, or whatever.
