As you're all aware of (or should be), ESPN aired a documentary on Michigan's Fab Five this past Sunday. Within the goosebump-inducing two hour doc, the Fab Five, minus the fabulous Webber, relived their memories of Duke, who defeated Michigan in the 1992 National Championship game. During the relatively quick segment, Jimmy King nonchalantly called Grant Hill "a bitch" -- after calling Christian Laettner one, of course.
↵While I felt most of the animosity was directed toward Laettner, King and Jalen Rose singled Hill out, as well. Rose expressed resentment toward Hill's upbringing by Hilary Clinton's college roommate and a dad who cared, claiming that Duke did not recruit players with rough backgrounds like Rose and that they only recruited "Uncle Toms" (which is what created the most stir amongst the media).
↵Well, according to SPORTSbyBrooks, Grant Hill will respond to the documentary via an editorial in the snazzy New York Times sometime this week:
↵↵↵A source at the NEW YORK TIMES told me late Tuesday that Hill has submitted an editorial to the newspaper to be published this week that will detail his feelings about the aforementioned Michigan team.
↵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.
Included in Hill’s piece is an anecdote about King attending Pistons training camp in 1999. 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.)
Now, the documentary wasn't extremely clear, but King and Rose did use past tense, making it seem that they were merely describing how they felt when they were 18-year-old kids. King's feelings could've very well changed by the time he was a teammate of Hill's with the Pistons. On Monday's ESPN First Take, Jimmy King defined "Uncle Tom," but implied that his "dislike" and "perception" of Duke was mostly while he was growing up. I'm not convinced, though, that King would admit those feelings have passed once he's told Hill has decided to issue a rebuttal in the freaking New York Times. I mean, what a bitch move, right?