OT: Elton Brand exchange with Alumni on his way out of Duke...

Submitted by Braylon 5 Hour… on

I saw the below link posted by Jalen on Twitter and several others in the midst of this response by Grant Hill to Jalen Rose's 1991 self.  Basically, this is Elton Brand's response after declaring for the NBA draft and some Duke alum criticizing him for doing so. I really looked for a while to see if this had already been posted, so I apologize if it has.  I thought it was interesting and at the very least pretty entertaining, if not so completely relevant to anything.

 

http://www.aseaofblue.com/story/2007/6/7/102426/5876

bryemye

March 16th, 2011 at 4:35 PM ^

An honor and a privilege. Jesus.

I think Elton kept it relatively classy there.

 

*EDIT* Let's be honest, the real reason this was being written is because of his basketball talent and its entertainment value for the woman who wrote that email to him. Insert whatever overtones you want there, but the first thing that pops into my head is sure as hell racist.

ken725

March 16th, 2011 at 4:36 PM ^

A radio host out here in California always says, "Nothing ages a woman more than anger."  I feel bad for whoever has to put up with that everyday. 

akearney50

March 17th, 2011 at 12:43 PM ^

I believe it all happened the same year.  William Avery left as well.  Not sure if they won the National Championship that year but they beat MSU in the Final Four before advancing to the championship.



William Avery is widely known to have been waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay ineligible and wouldn't have been able to play the next season.

bronxblue

March 16th, 2011 at 4:49 PM ^

Good for Brand.  Why she cares one iota about Brand's decision to leave stuns me, but I think his response is spot-on and appropriate.  Duke students always struck me as particularly entitled (knowing a couple), and this e-mail exchange embodies why everyone tends to dislike them so much.

biakabutuka ex…

March 16th, 2011 at 4:51 PM ^

They're both entitled to their opinions about what an NCAA athlete is obligated to do. Nobody I know of has ever said officially what that is.

If an early entry into the draft like Brand goes back and finishes his degree, though, there is not a damn thing anyone can say.

profitgoblue

March 16th, 2011 at 5:00 PM ^

Regardless of whether he goes back for a degree or not, why the f-ck do people feel the need to butt their noses in other's business?  Why does that girl give a sh-t if he leaves early or not?  In his two years at Duke, Brand contributed more to the university than that dinghy broad will contribute in her entire lifetime.  That, in and of itself, likely makes him more of a "Dukie" than her.  She was deserving of the b-tch-slap that she received, if only because she should have minded her own f-ing business.

El Jeffe

March 16th, 2011 at 4:56 PM ^

What year is it? Why is this news now? I'm starting to be concerned that I'm in the middle of some sort of Inception-like dream, but if I am, that means I made up the movie Inception, which means I am going to be super rich when I wake up.

Johnny Blood

March 16th, 2011 at 5:01 PM ^

Pretty lame that while she lambasts him for not valuing a Duke education and all that crap, she has multiple grammar errors throughout her note:

"If you do not realize the opportunity you has infront of you..."

"I just wish that you has spared us the notion..."

trueblueintexas

March 16th, 2011 at 8:31 PM ^

From that whole exchange, the double use of "has" was the thing that stood out to me.  Maybe she started "I can haz cheezburger".  If so, I hope she is as rich as Elton Brand now.

Assuming she didn't, I'll follow up with this: I have a sign in my office that says "Before you give someone a piece of your mind, be sure you have some to spare".  Here is further proof that many people do not heed this advice.

Braylon 5 Hour…

March 16th, 2011 at 5:03 PM ^

Out of curiosity, how many of those Duke students "putting in 4 years at the school they love" would still stay 4 years if they had the opportunity to be a #1 pick in the NBA draft and to be signed to a guaranteed multimillion deal at age 20?? No hypocrisy at all in that communication by Jennifer Taylor...

AnthonyThomas

March 16th, 2011 at 6:56 PM ^

Agreed. There are people like Zuckerberg who are recruited out of high school and during their college years by corporations in the same vain that an athlete is by a college. Guys like Zuckerberg and Brand have talents that are in demand and that normal people don't possess. For someone to criticize him for utilizing that talent is asinine.

dnak438

March 16th, 2011 at 9:49 PM ^

I teach at a major university and I'd like to think that a University degree provides a lot besides earning power.  If all you care about is money, then yes, don't do anything that doesn't increase your income (in the short or long run). But there's a lot more to life than just money.

(I'm not saying that Brand shouldn't have left early; I would have, and then I'd just go back to school once my playing career was over).

the_white_tiger

March 16th, 2011 at 10:00 PM ^

Oh I definitely agree. Shaquille O'Neal left school early but worked in the summers to eventually get his degree. Kevin Durant is doing the same. It's what they should do, but I think that waiting to get that degree to start gaining income (when that income could be gained without it) is foolish. Getting the degree on your own time is definitely not.

Maximinus Thrax

March 16th, 2011 at 11:28 PM ^

But it is not true.  A person can learn throughout their lifetime regardless of whether or not they have a degree (however, if they did not go to college, they might have said "irregardless").  A degree is simply a piece of paper that says "I jumped through hoops for for years and maybe wrote a few papers".  If Shaq were to say "I value education, I read 'The Wealth of Nations' after I graduated", white crackers would say "uh hmm, sure Shaq, you don't really value education, you really value money.  If you really valued education, you would have read Adam Smith and written some papers on it in order for some educated crackers to pass judgment on your assimilative faculties".  But, if Shaq gets his degree from LSU and writes some paper on "The Wealth of Nations"  that earns him a passing grade in economics, crackers say that he "values education".  College is a racket dude, get over it.  I don't care if you are the dean of English literature at Oxford.  One does not need college to achieve education. 

dnak438

March 17th, 2011 at 12:51 AM ^

I don't think that I did.  Who said that you need a college degree to be educated? That's dumb.

Pat Moynihan once said "Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts." You may think that a University education is pointless, but that doesn't make it so.

But to address your points: sure, you can read on your own.  But it's still not the same as a good University education.  First of all, University education is more than just reading books and writing papers about them.  It's about intellectual exchange. I learned a lot at the University of Michigan, for instance, from professors, from other students, from graduate students, and so on, inside and outside of class.  It's not easy to get that kind of intense intellectual atmosphere outside of a world-class university. You have to be pretty arrogant to think that you can't learn from other people, especially from people who have dedicated their lives to it.

You could also just do the bare minimum in college and leave it at that. But in that case you're cheating yourself.

BlueDragon

March 17th, 2011 at 1:56 AM ^

What you get out of school depends on what you put into it.  Churning out a paper on Adam Smith at LSU or at Michigan, therby earning a passing grade in Economics, would probably get you about the same distance in terms of education, broadening of one's mind, and becoming a better-informed citizen.  Getting an A in that same course at Michigan is much, much harder than getting an A in a similar course at LSU, or heck, just about any school in the SEC except for Vandy.  That's what makes Michigan such an elite school:  the student has to work hard to get good grades.  It's not like taking a two-week Aids Awareness class at Ohio State and getting an A for showing up to boost your GPA up to 2.0.

To me, the real beauty of higher education is the opportunity to take great science courses: chemistry, physics, biology, organic chemistry, anatomy.  I'm trying to get into medical school in the fall, and I'm taking 15-20 credits a term for the next 2-3 quarters to do it.  My undergraduate degree is in Performance Music (Classical) from Michigan.  I spent four years in Ann Arbor, practicing all the live-long day.  Four, five, six hours on a good day, 15 minutes or none on a not so good day.  I had to take all sorts of music theory and musicology classes as required by my major to get my degree in four years.  Along the way, I played in many, many recitals, concerts, fundraisers, chamber groups, operas, and musical theatre gigs, not to mention jamming with friends on an inebriated night or two.  All of the required classes helped develop my skills as an artist.  I learned more about what went in to a good performance, the creative process, what it means to be human, our potential as living beings, and many other branches of philosophy, culture, and comparative religions.  Not to mention the physical training of learning how to sit or stand perfectly upright without swaying around too much for in some cases hours at a time, and developing the flawless technique on your instrument of choice (in my case, the clarinet) to accomplish this.

Why am I rambling on about my undergrad?  Because I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world.  Because those four years were some of the most joyful days I've ever experienced.  Because I found out what I was put on this earth to do, namely, become a doctor.  I could not have done all of this without the extensive free time for practice, Ultimate Frisbee, summer festivals in Northern Michigan, and yes, parking in front of a computer and reading 50-page articles for six hours at a stretch because you've been putting it off all term.

Now I'm taking science all day.  Sometimes I'm on campus for 14 hours at a time, from 7AM-9PM some days.  It should get a little easier next term with just 15 credits.  I still have a ton of classes to take, and I'm looking forward to them, because there is no opinion that goes into anatomy.  There is no opinion that goes into chemistry.  It's natural science.  You can look at three different human bodies in the lab, and all three of them have the liver on the right side of the abdomen.  It's hard, verifiable, truth.  And it's extremely useful for getting into the medical profession, which is only going to grow by leaps and bounds as the baby boomers continue to retire/age/ride off into the sunset.

I agree with you that street smarts and learning independently are very important.  However, street smarts alone are not enough.  There are certainly people who became wise and successful through street smarts alone, but those men and women are few and far between.  Education, and especially post-high-school education, is truly becoming the new gold standard in today's society.  It's not enough to be able to read and write and do basic math.  An employer looks at that skill set and says great, fill out this employment application and here's your shirt and hat.  Go make pizza.  However, if you get A's in chemistry and organic chemistry, jump through the rest of the hoops in your degree program, go on an internship with a chemical company, and graduate in five years with an Engineering degree, hey, you can work for a chemical company and make, say, $50,000 starting salary.  My brother became an Electrical Engineer in 2001, and it's been pretty steady employment for him.  It all depends on your level of education.

DarfurWarrior

March 17th, 2011 at 12:20 PM ^

No it is not true. It is clear that the author of this article is just as big of a Racist Bigot as Rose and Walker.

This author to the link is a Kentucky fan states "which originally surfaced in 2007", however it has been around since "Angry Duke Fan's Correspondence With Elton Brand"  Posted Thursday, May 05, 2005 under Humor in none other than the UNC Tarheel Times. This is just another low class no class scam by Duke bashing hate mongers.

They pulled a similar stunt saying Thomas Hill and Christian Laettner were not just roommates, but gay lovers.

Elton Brand is married to his Duke Alumni wife, and Started the Elton Brand Foundation in the spring of 2000 - it's an organization that provides support to worthy causes in Durham, NC

June 9, 2010

DURHAM – BDN caught up to Elton Brand during the Coach K Academy and got his thoughts on his return to Duke and his future with the Philadelphia Sixers [76'ers].

Elton has participated in Coach K's basketball camps many times over the years, which for the record provides the opportunity to so called underprivileged children from the same circumstances as ESPN's Racist Bigot analyst Rose and Walker claim they would not even recruit. Those two and the author of this article are precisely what they claim Duke to be, racist piles of human gutter trash. 

If Jalen Rose tweeted this he clearly shows himself to be an ignorant imbecilic racist gutter trash bigot, which he has always been. It's not Dukes fault he had a worthless no account father.

If ESPN will fire someone for using a term like  'sweet baby' , they should be kicking those two Racist Bigots out the door ASAP!!!!!!!.