Coach K Speaks up Re: Fab Five Documentary
ESPN just released an article based on Coach K's comments to a radio show this morning. Link. Quotes:
Obviously, that was a poor choice of words and very insulting to everyone here at Duke but especially, not just our African-American players, but any African-American students. When you judge within a race, you start judging, like you put categories as to who you are. I think that's just the wrong thing to do.
We were very successful against them and, to be quite frank with you, we recruited Chris Webber. I didn't recruit Jalen Rose because we had Grant Hill and I'm happy with that. We didn't look at the other, Juwan Howard [because] we knew he wasn't going to come to Duke. The other two kids we didn't think were the caliber that could play as well as Thomas Hill and Brian Davis and Billy McCaffery. They're good kids. They were good kids.
They had a heck of a run but, they didn't leave anything, they didn't establish anything there. The guys that I had established something that Jay Williams continued to do 10 years later -- the standards of what it meant to be a Duke basketball player.
I'm not going to make too strong of a comment about what I think, because, frankly, it doesn't matter much. I will say that I think Coach K is smarter than actually believing Jalen was talking about modern day as opposed to 1991. On the other hand, Jalen laid out some pretty serious allegations in Coach K's direction.
I never knew they were such a sensitive group. First off, and as everyone in the same world already knows, Jalen was talking aboput his feelings as a 19 year old, who came from a very tough, inner-city environment, where his natural father was a sports star but didn't provide a nickle to Jalen or his mother.
What made the documentary great, in my opinion, was that Jalen didn't try to paint the Fab 5 as perfect kids. They owned up to many of their flaws, including their admitted prejudice (one could even use the word racism) towards the guys at Duke. By admitting it - and by showing the strong emotions that went into their feelings - Jalen dealt with the issue in a thought provoking way and (if we want to be academics about the issue) raises for discussion the issue of anti-black prejudices within the African-American community, itself.
For Coach K and Grant Hill to be offended in 2011 about the feelings that inner city kids harbored in 1993 - feelings that Jalen has explained were largely the result of his jealousy - is immature, oversensitive and to me, only serves to validate 1993 Jalen's view that Duke is a bunch of bitches.
Rose basically said that he was envious of Hill's family. Not a lot of people would admit to that on national TV. Also, isn't that a compliment?
Between the self awareness Jalen shows, and the complete lack of it from the Dukies, that they're doing their best to come off just as he characterized them, is startling.
Duke always gives off the impression that, for all their success and the program that exists, they desperately want someone other than their alumni and jag-off basketball commentators to just acknowledge how awesome they are. Too bad for them.
Coach K obviously felt the need to defend his program against Jalen's comments. I would probably have felt the same way, at least with respect to Jalen's statement that he believed (past tense) that Duke only recruitied a certain type of black player. Regardless of whether it was clear that Jalen only USED to think that, the allegation is out there and it probably needed to be addressed and de-bunked. Recruiting is very much about public perception and Duke does not need the perception that they do not recruit inner-city black kids, regardless of how/why that perception came about or whether it is a valid perception.
That said, Coach K probably could have taken the high road and not gotten in the dig about legacy. His stats/tenure speaks for itself. And the fact that so many people hate Duke says even more about how successful their program has been. People don't talk about Michigan like that, for example, because Michigan has never experience the long-term success like Duke. In other words, there is no reason to break-down Michigan like people feel the need to do with Duke. Coach K could have simply recognized this fact and stayed out of the fray. Grant Hill's comment was stinging enough as is.
I'm pretty sure Jalen still believes that Duke shies away from recruiting inner-city black players - and he's correct. The record shows that very few of the black players they've had are from backgrounds like his. But he understands now why Duke does this, and he no longer lashes out at the black players who do go there.
I'm not sure he understands why he may do this, I myself, struggle to come up with any reason. But, he certainly doesn't blame any player that accepts the opportunity to attend Duke.
He explained it on his First Take appearance, saying something like "They think a guy from a stable background is less likely to embarass the school. He won't sell his rings." Also, Duke may consider most inner-city schools to be inadequate academically. Their academic standards, while definitely lowered for athletes, are still somewhat higher than most other D-I schools.
Fine, he might "understand" Duke's reasoning, but that doesn't mean he thinks that reasoning is legitimate.
There are many possible reasons that Duke largly does not recruit inner-city:
1. It is more likely that kids from the inner city will be involved in off the field problems. Obviously, kids from any background can have issues, but perhaps Coach K is playing the odds, recognizing that kids from more difficult background are probably more likely to have bad associations or less family to guide them away from negative situations, and that such problems can distract a team and mess with chemistry.
2. Academics - Duke has fairly high academic standards, even for their BB players. There may be an issue with getting certain kids into school. In FB, you can take a risk on a kid, because the average recruiting class is around 20-25. In BB, you can't recally afford to take the risk, since classes can be as small as 4 players.
3. Coachability - for right or for wrong, Coach K may have a perception that inner city kids are less coachable.
I have no real problem with these reasons. Coach K's record of success shows that he is clearly identifying the talent that best fits his system.
There is a 4th reason that several of my Duke alumni friends have disapprovingly voiced - that there is a large contingent of the alumni base that would throw a fit that would make our alum's reaction to RR seem mild if Duke were to recruit kids like the Fab 5. I have no idea if this is true or not, but if this is the reason for Duke's avoidance of certain types of kids, then that is troubling.
I don't consider any of those a real reason to avoid recruiting inner city kids. You recruit the player, not the background. Off the court problems, academic issues and coachability issues are not unique to inner city kids, nor are inner city kids guaranteed to have any of those issues. With as much time as it takes to build up a relationship with a potential recruit, any coach could determine if any one of your three reasons why not to recruit inner city kids is going to be an issue.
I'm more likely to believe your 4th listed reason is true and the first three are just the public answers if and when the question comes up.
when you have the pick of the litter among high school bball players, why wouldn't you take the path of least resistance to obtain quality basketball players (on and off the court). and a person's background is a criterion that is analyzed, write or wrong.
You are looking at this from the players' perspective. You have to look at it from Duke's. Duke is not a public school. Its institutional mission is not about bringing education to the masses. It is fundamentally elitist - Duke grads are supposed to form part of the elite of society. Its character is reminiscent of suburban prep schools. Kids who attended those types of high schools are most likely to feel at home there. For a kid from the inner city, it may be culture shock. What's more, most inner-city schools aren't that strong academically, so a kid from one of them might not prepared to succeed at Duke.
Given that all schools, even rich private ones like Duke, have limited recruiting budgets, if you're Coach K, why waste your time making a hard sell to a kid from the South Side of Chicago when you can get comparable talents from suburban New York who have grown up rooting for your team?
that Duke would recruit his kids, but not him, gave sufficient context to his initial comments.
I don't think any more needs to be said after that.
Certainly he wouldn't now use the same terms towards his own kids that he once used to describe Duke players.
PGB - seems like a long time since I last saw a post of yours.
Krzyzewski is right about at least one thing: the comments were insulting. Sometimes insults have a ring of truth in them.
to boost ratings for the documentary, jalen and ESPN highlighted racially sensitive terms like "Uncle Tom." jalen qualifies his opinion as how he felt back in 1991, but he does not come out explictily saying that he was wrong or he feels differently now. (not that i noticed in the film anyways.) why? if he did, there wouldn't be as big of a controversy and no one would be talking about it. we are all being manipulated to a talk about a controversy that didn't exist or cared about before the ESPN documentary.
This is maddening.
YES HE DID.
On first take, Skip Bayless asked Jalen if he thought that kids that took scholarships were "Uncle Tom's, or betraying their race". His answer was "OF COURSE NOT."
What he DOES still believe is that Duke didn't, and doesn't, have interest in urban, black, atheletes.
It is not about racism, it's about elitism!
true
All that K, Grant Hill & all the other Duke supports are doing is growing the massive dislike across the nation for their program and the image they portray. Duke always has portrayed themselves as holier than thou and this situation has just provided them with the opportunity to prove to the world that they truly are a bunch of classless asshats...
I respect Coach K as a coach. I really do. I don't like him but respect him. HOWEVA, I think there was a lot of truth to what Jalen said in terms of Duke's recruiting. Now, they are a great school so admission will, at times, come into play but Coach K doesn't recruit people like Jalen Rose and the rest of the Fab FIve save Webber. I only had one little problem with what Rose said. The people he described as people that Coach K would recruit in terms of African American's was Chris Webber. He played with one of those guys. Of course, Webber didn't go to Dook so perhaps Jalen didn't realize that but Webber was that type of high schooler.
I do have a big problem with the large overreaction to what Jalen said. He was speaking of what he thought as an 18 year old. If Dook wants to cry about it and make a big deal fine, but too many people so completely unfamiliar with the situation have taken words out of context and taken Dook's side due to misrepresentation of what was actually said. That's the part I hate the most.
I think Jimmy King said it best, "I got 99 problems but a Duke ain't one".
p.s. Fuck Duke.
The standards of being a Duke basketball player are to be (generally) among the luckiest, most privileged basketball players in the country going into college and then to be more-or-less as successful as you would expect such players to be regardless of where they went to school.
I live near a very wealthy suburb with a very low crime rate and a very high tax base. It does not impress me much that the high school in that suburb manages produce kids who get really good test scores. It would suprise me if it didn't.
The phrase "born on third base but thinks he hit a triple" comes to mind.
why it felt so good when Duke got knocked out of the NCAA's this year. of course, it was even sweeter than normal this year when tosu went down at the same time.
I explicitly heard Coach K say, in a press conference prior to our tournament game this month, that he did NOT watch the documentary. However, now he's commenting on its content. Am I reading too much into this or has Coach K been caught in a lie?
Prior to our tournament game, Duke was also still in the tournament. Coach K didn't have a ton of time to watch a two hour documentary.
Arizona gave him the luxury of a bit of downtime. In any event, at most he's probably seen/read excerpts.
"Oh - boy my wife has big thighs..."
If you look closely, you can actually pinpoint the moment that Scott Bakula gives up on Coach K and leaps to his next assignment.
of mouth breathers and zit pickers...
Seriously, the so-called fab fibe accomplished little other than to generate controversy and excitement that increased interest and revenue for a time.
It is important to remember that the 1989 team won a national title. That should be the standard for Michigan basketball.
Instead, the "fab five" continue to create controversy and self-promote when their lasting legacy is having brought the Michigan basketball program to its knees.
A couple of points to be made, I know the basketball program was dirty long before the fab five arrived on campus. Prior athletes did not draw attention to themselves and were generally "smarter" than the fab five in how the went about their business. i also want to give Jalen Rose, juwan Howard, Jimmy King and Ray Jackson credit for owning up to much of their responsibility both good and bad. I believe they understand what it is to be Michigan men. Chris Webber, not so much - if he did, he would apologize for his actions. No, with Webber everything remains about Chris Webber first and foremost, not unlike the tat five selling off their rings and gold pants. Webber just doesn't understand.
Coach K? Hell Jalen called him and his program out. Once he had a chance to watch the documentary after the tourney, what response did you anticipate he would have? The comments made in the documentary deserved a response and Coach K's were not out of line.
The face of Michigan basketball - Glen Rice, Marc Hughes, Terry Mills, Loy Vaught, Mike Griffen, Rumeal Robinson, et al. And right behind them Phil Hubbard, Ricky Green, Rudy T, Campy and Cazzie. The fab five need to fade away. Just keep their mouths shut and go quietly about the business of restoring their image, let their actions speak for them.
to the assertion--valid, I believe--that the Fab Five will be remembered long after Duke's championship that year, I would suggest that your post is little more than twaddle, your hope that they should fade away just another cybersurfer's wishful thinking.
In the end, they were bigger than Michigan, too, which is what REALLY pisses some people off.
There is a difference between infamous and famous.
as <pick a great artist> was/is to art. they were much, much more than just a basketball team.
Which is exactly why they have zero championships to show for their time at Michigan. They never won anything. Their greatest "accomplishments" have little to do with actual basketball.
he and all his players have set a hell of a standard. That said, the members of the Fab 5 were special in many ways; how the hell do you sustain that?
effluent.
Christian Laettner: Bitch.
Grant Hill: Bitch.
Coach K: Bitch.