Pretty much all of us have had something to say about the Derrick Rose saga, and most of the comments have been critical. Now we have an interesting perspective from Grant Hill, who is convinced he returned too soon from a serious ankle injury after he too was cleared to play by his doctors.
Part of the Rose controversy was fueled by Rose’s own brother, who implied Rose didn’t want to return so fast to a team that had no chance of winning a title. That statement coupled with the amazing run by this depleted Bulls team has certainly heightened the scrutiny on Rose. He’s also said very little, so that also fuels the wild speculation. So the feeding frenzy is partly his own fault.
That said, it all comes back to the hard fact that Rose suffered a very serious knee injury, and the fact he’s been cleared by doctors to play doesn’t settle the issue of whether he should be out there. Only he knows how his knee feels.
I don’t think Rose owes his team to go out there if he’s still concerned about his knee. But from a PR perspective he should probably speak up about his condition.
In the ESPN documentary “The Fab Five,” Jalen Rose and his teammates made a few comments about the Duke basketball program. The most inflammatory was that the black Duke players were “Uncle Toms.” Grant Hill’s name was brought up, and Hill has since responded via the New York Times’ college sports blog.
My teammates at Duke — all of them, black and white — were a band of brothers who came together to play at the highest level for the best coach in basketball. I know most of the black players who preceded and followed me at Duke. They all contribute to our tradition of excellence on the court.
It is insulting and ignorant to suggest that men like Johnny Dawkins (coach at Stanford), Tommy Amaker (coach at Harvard), Billy King (general manager of the Nets), Tony Lang (coach of the Mitsubishi Diamond Dolphins in Japan), Thomas Hill (small-business owner in Texas), Jeff Capel (former coach at Oklahoma and Virginia Commonwealth), Kenny Blakeney (assistant coach at Harvard), Jay Williams (ESPN analyst), Shane Battier (Memphis Grizzlies) and Chris Duhon (Orlando Magic) ever sold out their race.
To hint that those who grew up in a household with a mother and father are somehow less black than those who did not is beyond ridiculous. All of us are extremely proud of the current Duke team, especially Nolan Smith. He was raised by his mother, plays in memory of his late father and carries himself with the pride and confidence that they instilled in him.
Well said, Grant.
In a recent column, FoxSports columnist Jason Whitlock took the Fab Five to task for saying such things:
The Fab Five clearly believe Coach K and Duke didn’t and don’t recruit inner-city black kids, and they believe race/racism/elitism are the driving forces behind the philosophy.
Let’s go back to the Fab Five era and Duke’s philosophy then. Coach K recruited kids who had every intention of staying in school for four years. He recruited kids who had a good chance of competing academically at Duke and could meet the standardized test score qualifications for entrance.
The Fab Five stated it was their intention to win a national championship and turn pro as a group after their sophomore season. Webber, who was recruited by Duke, left Michigan after two years. Rose and Howard left as juniors. Impoverished inner-city kids have good reason to turn pro early. I’m not knocking Webber, Howard and Rose for their decisions. They didn’t fit the Duke profile at the time.
During the three-year run of the Fab Five (one season without Webber), Duke beat Michigan all four times the schools met while winning two ACC titles and one NCAA title. During the same span, Michigan won zero conference or national titles. In addition, Webber’s interactions with booster Ed Martin put the program on probation and caused Michigan to forfeit all its games.
I think Coach K recruited and recruits the right kids for Duke.
It turns out that Jalen Rose was the executive producer of the documentary, so it would be tough to argue that his words were taken out of context.
People forget just how good Grant Hill was before injuries derailed his career. In his first six seasons in Detroit, he averaged 22-8-6, won the Rookie of the Year, made five All-Star teams and five All-NBA teams.
From his Wiki page:
After the first six seasons of his career, before his ankle injury, Hill had a total of 9,393 points, 3,417 rebounds and 2,720 assists. Oscar Robertson and Larry Bird are the only two players in league history to eclipse these numbers after their first six seasons.
It’s true. LeBron James only had 3307 rebounds through his first six seasons.
Hill missed 357 games over the next six seasons with major ankle problems and almost died due to a staph infection contracted during that time. Even with all of these problems, he still posted a 20-5-3 season and was named to his seventh All-Star Game during the 2004-05 season.
It’s a shame — if not for those ankle problems, Hill might have been one of the all-time greats.
The NBA free agency period starts July 1st, and as that date approaches I’ll preview this year’s free agent class in more detail. But for now, I’d like to take a look at which teams have the cap flexibility to be major players in free agency this summer. (Mind you, just because a team has cap space, it doesn’t necessarily mean that they’ll use it. Just sayin’.)
Not familiar with the NBA salary cap? Here’s a quick primer…
1. The cap for the 2008-09 season was $58.7 million. The general consensus is that the cap will stay flat or decrease slightly. We’ll assume it sticks at $58.7 million.
2. If a team is over the cap, the only free agents they can sign are their own, unless they elect to sign a player to the mid-level exception (~$5.8 million per season), the bi-annual exception (~$2.0) or to a minimum contract. (The bi-annual exception may not be used in two consecutive years.)
3. If a team is under the cap, they can sign any free agent they want as long as they do not exceed the cap. They can also take on salary via trade up to the cap, so a team like the Grizzlies (with almost $20 million in cap space) could conceivably trade their first round pick to the Suns for Amare Stoudemire or to the Raptors for Chris Bosh.
Here’s a list of the bigger names in the free agent pool this summer:
Unrestricted: Carlos Boozer, Ben Gordon, Ron Artest, Lamar Odom, Andre Miller, Shawn Marion, Jason Kidd, Hedo Turkoglu, Allen Iverson, Mehmet Okur, Rasheed Wallace, Mike Bibby, Anderson Varejao, Grant Hill, Kyle Korver, Trevor Ariza, Brandon Bass, Chris Andersen, Zaza Pachulia, Chris Wilcox and Drew Gooden
Restricted: David Lee, Paul Millsap, Ray Felton, Josh Childress*, Marvin Williams, Glen Davis, Ramon Sessions, Charlie Villanueva, Nate Robinson, Leon Powe, Hakim Warrick, Linas Kleiza, Jarrett Jack and Shannon Brown
* It appears that if Childress does return to the NBA, the Hawks still hold his rights, so he would be a restricted free agent.
There are eight teams that project to have more than $5.8 million (the value of the mid-level exception) in cap space this summer:
Memphis Grizzlies Projected Cap Space: $19.7 million Memphis has been reluctant to spend for several years now and is probably one of the franchises that’s struggling the most in the current economy. I lived in Memphis for three years, and given its small size and overall lack of wealth, I always thought that it would struggle to support a professional sports team. With a core of Rudy Gay, O.J. Mayo and Marc Gasol, the Grizzlies have to feel pretty good about what they have at off guard, small forward and center. The big decision this summer is what to do with restricted free agent Hakim Warrick. When dealing with bad teams, numbers can be deceptive, because no matter what, somebody has to score and rebound, right? Warrick’s PER (16.91) is #24 amongst power forwards, so ideally he’d be coming off the bench for a playoff team. The Grizzlies projected cap space assumes they make the qualifying offer to Warrick ($3.0 million). Memphis is one of those teams that could really use the services of a Carlos Boozer, David Lee or Paul Millsap, but in this economy, are the Grizzlies willing to make that kind of a commitment? They could try to make a run at Chris Bosh or Amare Stoudemire next summer, but the odds are long that either guy would want to play for the Grizzlies.
Sixers forward Elton Brand is out for the season and will have shoulder surgery as early as Monday, a team source confirmed for the Daily News.
Brand dislocated his right shoulder on Dec. 17 when he spilled to the floor awkwardly after being upended by Milwaukee’s Luc Mbah a Moute. Surgery will be performed by Dr. Craig Morgan, Brand’s personal orthopedic surgeon. Morgan did the surgery to repair Brand’s torn Achilles’ tendon that kept him out almost all of last season.
His career is starting to look like another former Duke star — Grant Hill. Hill was on his way to a Hall of Fame-type career before injuries derailed much of his prime. Last year, Brand missed almost the entire season with an Achilles injury and now he’s going to miss most of this season with a shoulder injury.
