NCAA Basketball

Grant Hill Will Respond To Jimmy King’s “Uncle Tom” And “Bitch” Comments In NY Times Editorial

Update: Shortly after this post was published, Grant Hill’s Op-Ed column responding to comments Jalen Rose and Jimmy King made about him in ESPN’s Fab Five documentary appeared in the New York Times. Click here for our take on Hill’s column.

In addition to its media praise, the Fab Five documentary earned a 2.1 rating, the highest ever for an ESPN documentary. But on the heels of that success comes the backlash.

Jason Whitlock made some critical comments about the documentary—including the statement that the “Fab Five were the original Charlie Sheen“—and former Duke guard Bobby Hurley shared the opinion that the former Michigan players were bitter.

Now, former Duke star and current NBA veteran Grant Hill is going to offer his views in an editorial that will reportedly appear in the New York Times tomorrow. The piece will include a response to former Michigan player Jimmy King calling black players at Duke “Uncle Toms,” and specifically calling Hill a “bitch.”

Hill (who is black, and was key piece of the Duke team that beat the Fab Five in the 1992 championship) already wrote the piece; in it, he reportedly makes it apparent that he took King’s comments personally.

Though Hill and King were famous rivals, few people likely remember they were also teammates in the NBA. King washed out of the league quickly, after he played 62 games for the Toronto Raptors in his rookie season, and two games with the Denver Nuggets in his second season in 1996. But the Detroit Pistons, then led by a Hill, invited the former Michigan star to training camp.

According to SportsByBrooks, Hill—who is the only three-time winner of the NBA sportsmanship award —includes an anecdote about King at Pistons training camp in the Times editorial.

Apparently, Hill found the former Fab Fiver’s comments so disconcerting because he considered King a friend. Brooks reports that the 16-year NBA veteran “repeatedly lobbied” then-Pistons GM Rick Sund to keep King on the roster, but his efforts didn’t help in the end, as King was cut prior to the start of the season.

We’ll be looking out for Hill’s editorial, which will surely be followed by a response from King.

Oh, and by the way, if Michigan and Duke both win their first round games of the NCAA tournament, they’ll play each other in the second round. As the documentary has created a rejuvinated rivalry, might we add this to the list of NCAA conspiracy theories?