Grant Hill’s Unedited Response to the Fab Five’s Documentary

Due to space constraints, the editorial posted in the New York Times was shortened.  Read Grant’s full, unedited response to the Fab Five’s comments and follow other people’s responses on his official web site www.granthill.com.

I am a fan, friend and long time competitor of the Fab Five.  This should not be a surprise because I am a contemporary of every member of that iconic team.   I have competed against Jalen and Chris since the age of 13.  Jalen, Chris, and Juwan are my friends and have been for 25 years.  At Michigan, they represented a cultural phenomenon that impacted the country in a permanent and positive way.  The very idea of the Fab Five elicited pride and promise in much the same way the Georgetown teams did in the mid-80s when I was in high school and idolized them.   Their journey from youthful icons to successful men today is a road map for so many young, black men (and women) who saw their journey through the powerful documentary, Fab Five.

It was a sad and somewhat pathetic turn of events, therefore, to see friends narrating this interesting documentary about their moment in time and calling me a bitch and worse, calling all black players at Duke “Uncle Toms” and, to some degree, disparaging my parents for their education, work ethic and commitment to each other and to me.  I should have guessed there was something regrettable in the documentary when Jay Williams and I received a Twitter apology from Jalen before its airing.  And, I am aware Jalen has gone to some length to explain his remarks about my family in numerous interviews, so I believe he has some admiration for them.

In his garbled but sweeping comment that “Duke only recruits black Uncle Toms,” Jalen seems to change the usual meaning of those very vitriolic words into his own meaning, i.e., blacks from two-parent, middle class families.  He leaves us all guessing exactly what he believes today.   And, I wonder if I would have suggested to former Detroit Pistons GM Rick Sund to keep Jimmy King on the team if I had known, back then in the mid-90s, that he would call me a bitch on a nationally televised show in 2011.

I am beyond fortunate to have two parents who are still working well into their 60s.  They received great educations and use them every day.   My parents taught me a personal ethic I try to live by and pass on to my children.  They remain committed to each other after more than 40 years and to my wife, Tamia, our children, and me.  They are my role models and always will be.

I come from a strong legacy of black Americans.  My namesake, Henry Hill, my father’s father, was a day laborer in Baltimore.  He could not read or write until he was taught to do so by my grandmother.   His first present to my dad was a set of encyclopedias, which I now have to remind me of the importance of education.  He wanted his only child, my father, to have a good education, so he made numerous sacrifices to see that he got an education, including attending Yale.   This is part of our great tradition as black Americans.  We aspire for the best or better for our children and work hard to make that happen for them.  Jalen’s mother is part of our great, black tradition and made the same sacrifices for him.

It is unbeknownst to me what Jalen meant by his convoluted reference to black players at Duke considering how little he knows about any of them.  My teammates—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 such as Johnny Dawkins (coach at Stanford), Tommy Amaker (coach at Harvard), Billy King (GM at 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), Kenny Blakeley (assistant coach at Harvard), Jay Williams (ESPN analyst), Shane Battier (Memphis Grizzlies) or Chris Duhon (Orlando Magic) now or 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 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.  He is the quintessential young Dukie.

The sacrifice, the effort, the education and the friendships I experienced in my four years are priceless and cherished.  The many Duke graduates I have met around the world are also my “family,” and they are a special group of people.    A good education is a privilege.   At Duke, the expectations are high for all of us.   Just as Jalen has founded a charter school in Michigan, we are expected to use our education to help others, to improve life for those who need our assistance and to use the excellent education we have received to better the world.   The total experience at Duke taught us to think before we act, to pause before we speak and to realize that as adults we have a responsibility to do good, not just do well.   A highlight of my time at Duke was getting to know the late, great John Hope Franklin, James B. Duke Professor of History and the leading scholar of the last century on the total history of African Americans in this country.  His insights and perspectives contributed significantly to my overall development and helped me understand myself, my forefathers, and my place in the world.

Ad ingenium faciendum, toward the building of character, is a phrase I recently heard.  To me, it is the essence of an educational experience.  Struggling, succeeding, trying again and having fun within a nurturing but competitive environment built character in all of us, including every black graduate of Duke.

My mother always says, “You can live without Chaucer and you can live without calculus, but you cannot make it in the wide, wide world without common sense.” As we get older, we understand the importance of these words.  Adulthood is nothing but a series of choices:  you can say yes or no, but you cannot avoid saying one or the other.  In the end, those who are successful are those who adjust and adapt to the decisions they have made and make the best of them.   I only hope I can instill in my children the same work ethic, the same values, the same common sense approach to life and the same pursuit of excellence my parents, Coach K and Duke gave me.

I caution my fabulous five friends to avoid stereotyping me and others they do not know in much the same way so many people stereotyped you back then for your appearance and swagger.  I wish for you the restoration of the bond that made you friends, brothers and icons.  I hope you reach closure with your university so you will enjoy all the privileges of its greatness.

I try to live my life as a good husband and father.  I am proud of my family.  I am proud of my Duke championships and all my Duke teammates.  And, I am proud I never lost a game against the Fab Five.

Grant Henry Hill
Phoenix Suns
Duke ‘94

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 16th, 2011 at 11:27 am and is filed under HillTop. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

REMEMBERING COACH JOHN WOODEN: THE REAL DEAL!

By Harold Bell

When I heard that Coach John Wooden had died last week, it was like I had just lost my coach, and I never had the pleasure of playing for him.

I would guess I had plenty of company.

Coach Wooden was a better human being than he was a coach. I would think most of us would want to be associated with a man who epitomized the human spirit.

He cared more about winning lives than winning games. But games he did win; he won 10 national championships in a span of 12 seasons at UCLA. He won 885 games, including 218 in high school and 47 at Indiana State. In 27 seasons at UCLA he won 620 games, losing only 147, for a winning percentage of .808.

Among those 10 national championships he won seven consecutive titles. Coach Wooden had 38 consecutive NCAA tournament victories that included back-to-back consecutive 30-game winning seasons in 1971-72 and 1972-73.

He is the only men’s coach to have four 30-0 seasons, but it was the 19 conference championships he said “I am most proud of.”

Coach Wooden was born in Halls, Indiana, but he never played by the discrimination laws of the state. In 1947 his Indiana State basketball team was invited to play in a tournament in Kansas, but he turned down the invitation when he discovered the National Association of Intercollegiate Basketball (NAIB), the conference sponsor, would not allow his only black player, Clarence Walker, to participate.

Remember, this was before Jackie Robinson and Branch Rickey of the Brooklyn Dodgers kicked down the doors of discrimination in Major League Baseball. This was also before the late Red Auerbach and owner Walter Brown of the Boston Celtics drafted the first black player to play in the NBA. This was a bold act by Coach Wooden; the State of Indiana was the stronghold of the Ku Klux Klan.

He was not only a stand-up human being with integrity; he also understood the definition of loyalty. That same year, Wooden’s alma mater Purdue University wanted him to return to campus and serve as an assistant to then head coach Mel Taube until Taube’s contract expired. Wooden would then take over the program.

Citing his loyalty to Taube, he declined the school’s offer. Taking the job as Taube’s assistant would have effectively made Taube a “lame duck” coach.

The following year (1948), Coach Wooden would again lead his team to the conference title. The NAIB reversed its policy banning African-American players, and he coached his team to the NAIB National Tournament final, losing to Louisville. In losing, he really won; he looked racism square in its unfocused eyes and walked away with a victory. This was the only championship game a Wooden-coached team ever lost.

That year, Walker became the first African-American to play in any postseason intercollegiate basketball tournament.

John Wooden was inducted into the Indiana State University Athletic Hall of Fame on Feb. 3, 1984. Wooden was “The Real Deal” before he arrived on the UCLA campus.

In the 1947-48 season, another characteristic of this great man came to the surface—he was a man of his word.

Before he took over as the head coach at UCLA, Coach Wooden had negotiated for a three-year contract with the University of Minnesota. UCLA had actually been his second choice. His wife Nell wanted to remain in the Midwest.

The inclement weather in Minnesota prevented him from receiving the scheduled phone offer from the Golden Gophers. He thought that they had lost interest, so Coach Wooden accepted the head coaching job with the Bruins instead.

Officials from the University of Minnesota contacted Wooden right after he accepted the position at UCLA, but he declined their offer because he had given his word to the Bruins.

Despite his success, Coach Wooden reportedly did not initially enjoy his position at UCLA, and his wife did not favor living in Los Angeles. As fate would have it, Mel Taube left Purdue in 1950. Wooden’s inclination was to return and finally accept the head coaching job there.

He was ultimately dissuaded when UCLA officials reminded him that it was he who insisted upon a three-year commitment during negotiations in 1948. With that in mind, Wooden felt that leaving UCLA prior to the expiration of his contract would be tantamount to breaking his word and thus decided to again pass on the job at Purdue.

Today’s coaches and athletes who are only devoted to a dollar bill could learn from Coach Wooden as it relates to the definition of Man. He was devoted to One Woman and One School, and his word was his bond. This is unheard of today in the world of sports.

His wife Nell was the love of his life. They were married in 1932, and she died of cancer in 1985. He remained devoted to her even decades after her death.

Since her death, he had kept a monthly ritual (health permitting)—on the 21st, he visited her grave and then wrote a love letter to her. After completing the letter, he placed it in an envelope and added it to a stack of similar letters that accumulated over the years on the pillow she slept on during their life together.

In mourning Nell’s death, Wooden was comforted by his faith. He was a Christian for many years, and his beliefs were more important to him than basketball: “I have always tried to make it clear that basketball is not the ultimate.” There is only one kind of life that truly wins, and that is the one that places faith in the hands of the Savior.

Wooden’s faith strongly influenced his life. He read the Bible daily and attended the First Christian Church. He said that he hopes his faith is apparent to others: “If I were ever prosecuted for my religion, I truly hope there would be enough evidence to convict me.”

I met Coach Wooden somewhere in the ’80s and was introduced to him by playground basketball and broadcast legend Sonny Hill. When I met Coach Wooden at the Capitol Center in Landover, Maryland, he was a member of the Board for the annual McDonald’s High School Basketball Classic.

Sonny introduced me as a sports talk show host and youth advocate. Coach Wooden seem more impressed with my work with at-risk children than my duties as a sports talk show host. Our conversation was centered on my work with children. I found him to be an “Officer and a Gentleman.” He was very humble and not full of himself.

I invited him to be my guest on Inside Sports, and he gave me his home number to contact him directly. The next weekend Coach Wooden was my guest.

I remember the show had a rough start because I had to cut NFL legend Jim Brown’s interview short. When I called Coach Wooden, he was not ready to come on and he promised to call back in 15 minutes.

I had already scheduled Jim to come on after Coach Wooden, but now I had to bring Jim on first. Five minutes into the Jim Brown interview Coach Wooden calls ready to go on the air. On one line I have a temperamental superstar and a gentle giant on another line.

I took a deep breath and went to a commercial break and explained my dilemma to Jim, and to my surprise he said, “No problem, we can do this next week.” It was evident that Jim also had a lot of respect for Coach Wooden.

Coach Wooden and I talked for 30 minutes, and there was little talk about the game of basketball. The conversation was about the “Game Called Life.”

I called Sonny Hill that night and thanked him for making the connection and told him about the mix-up with Jim Brown.

He said, “Coach would have understood and re-scheduled for the following weekend if his schedule permitted. He is that type of human being.”

The media called him “The Wizard of Westwood,” a name he disliked with a passion.

When I look back and think of all Coach Wooden’s qualities—integrity, loyalty, keeping his word, and a one-woman man, I would call him “The Saint of Westwood.”

HTML clipboard Terrance Dean Has An “Advisory” for Women

HISTORY DENIED IN BLACK AND WHITE!

By Harold Bell

He grew up in the cotton fields of Mississippi where his mother earned two-dollars a day picking cotton.  He would leave those cotton fields for the city of Detroit and leave behind the mental and physical chains of slavery.

Spencer Haywood left those cotton fields for the playgrounds and high school basketball courts in Motown.  Instead of picking cotton he made a career out of picking rebounds off the backboards and scoring baskets at record rates.

His high school basketball performances earned him a scholarship to Trinidad College where he averaged 28 points and 22 rebounds a game for one season. He returned home to play at the University of Detroit and averaged an eye popping 32 points and 22 rebounds.

Trinidad and the University of Detroit were just warm up stops on his basketball journey.  He would be only 18 years old in 1968 when he led the United States Olympic team to the gold medal in Mexico City.  This was the same year sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos made their historical statement against racial segregation in America.  During the presentations of medals they silently raised their black fisted signature gloves in protest.  The protest was heard around the world.

George Foreman followed their act of defiance by waving the American flag in the ring after winning a Gold Medal in boxing.  Those were three unforgettable moments and one moment Spencer would later say “I would rather forget.  Tommie and John were putting their futures in jeopardy and were banished from the Olympic Village for their defiant act.  If you were black and you were not going to support them, it was best you kept it to yourself.”

Instead of returning to the University of Detroit Spencer joined the newly organized American Basketball Association (ABA). In Denver he immediately became the face of the new league when he averaged 30 points and 19 rebounds a game.  He was named the league’s Most Valuable Player and Rookie of the Year.

Despite his basketball glory and bright lights and big cities, Spencer never forgot the cotton fields in his native Mississippi.  He remembered the long hours his mother labored in those fields picking cotton for pennies on a dollar.  His choice to leave college was easy, turning pro he would be able to make those cotton fields just a bad memory.

In 1970 with the support and encouragement of his mentor and high school coach Will Robinson, he decided to challenge the NBA’s volunteer slavery rule, “No college no play.”

The challenge would be a very lonely journey and sometimes it was hard to tell whether his new NBA Seattle teammates were playing with him or against him.  The one man he knew was in his corner was team owner Sam Schulman.  Schulman was the NBA’s Mark Cuban (Dallas Mavs) long before Cuban.

He marched to his own drummer; while Spencer was suing the NBA for trying to bar him, Schulman was suing the league for violating anti-trust laws.  If those were not enough headaches for Spencer, the University of Detroit and the ABA was suing him for leaving school early and breach of contract respectively.

Those were difficult times for a young man who had not yet celebrated his 21^st birthday.  There were times when he was served with injunctions just before the tip-off of a game and banished from the arena.  He slept in cars and in the team bus waiting for the game to end.  The injunctions became a guessing game.  It was hard to tell where and when the next injunction would be served.

Spencer played in only 33 games in the 1970-71 NBA season, starting, stopping and starting again with each temporary injunction.

The Supreme Court, the highest court in the land, ruled in his favor and he later became “Public Enemy No. 1” in the NBA.

He had to grow up early and he became a “Man Child” before his time.  There will be 24 players playing in the NBA All-Star Game in Dallas, Texas in 2010, 21 of the All-Stars came into the NBA and became instant millionaires thanks to Spencer’s kicking down the door to free agency.

He blazed the path for the likes of Moses Malone, Darryl Dawkins, Kobe Bryant, Kevin Garnett, Dwight Howard, Carmelo Anthony, Chris Bosh, Dywane Wade and Kwame Brown.  There are too many of them who don’t have a clue to who Spencer is as he relates to them and the NBA.

They don’t know, thanks to the NBA and brothers in so-called major media who refuse to take a stand and have fallen for just anything as it relates to Black History.  It looks like most of them (media) have been brainwashed by the NBA and have followed their lead in pretending Spencer Haywood is just a figment of their imagination.  For proof, do a Google search for “NBA History: African-American Influence and Breaking Down Barriers.” Spencer Haywood’s name is nowhere to be found.  The sad part of this puzzle is that no one in the media has asked the question why?

Spencer’s groundbreaking accomplishment was more important than Earl Lloyd becoming the first black to play in an NBA game or Red Auerbach playing five black players for the first time.  Free agency impacted every NBA player black and white.

Earl Lloyd was denied his rightful place in NBA History for 50 years until I asked NBA legendary coach the late Red Auerbach to join me in a campaign to get him inducted into the hall of fame.  Earl was finally inducted in 2002.  NFL Green Bay Packer legendary safety Willie Wood was also ignored for decades.  He stood by and watched as his teammates were voted into the hall of fame one by one.  He was left on the sidelines and reduced to a cheerleader.  In 1985 I started an “Induct Willie Wood” campaign on my sports talk show ‘Inside Sports,’ and he was inducted in 1988.

Boston Celtic coach and benefactor, Doc Rivers was recently quoted as saying, “For the most part, Spencer has just been taken for granted by many of us.  But what he did was huge for everyone.  We should all be thanking him.”

After the court ruled in Spencer’s favor he continued to play heads and shoulders above the rim.  In 1972 and 1973, he was on the All-NBA first team and became a chartered member of the All-Star game.  During that era he was one of the five best players in the league.

I met Spencer Haywood shortly after his arrival in the “Big Apple” New York City.  I was introduced to Spencer by CBS and NBA color analyst Sonny Hill.  Spencer would later become a regular on my sports talk show ‘Inside Sports.’ Sonny Hill played an important role in my success as a talk radio personality.

The trade to the New York Knicks took Spencer over the top when it came to the fast life and drugs.  He took the Big Apple by storm and made all the rich and famous parties driving a Rolls Royce and with his wife, Iman, one of the world’s top fashion models on his arm.  Frank Sinatra once said in a song, “New York, New York if you can make it here you can make it anywhere.” Spencer Haywood had made it!

When Spencer was at the top of his game as a NBA “Power Forward” he was one of the best.  There were several other players who I thought was his equal, Gus Johnson of the Washington Bullets and George McGinnis of the Philadelphia 76ers.  They also put the POWER into the forward position.  They had the finesse of ballet dancers with a linebacker’s mentally.  When they met head to head it was pro basketball at its best.  I would take anyone of these guys and match them with any similar Power Forwards in the NBA’s 50 Greatest (Barkley, DeBusschere, Lucas).  I would bet Spencer, George and Gus would win.

Spencer’s love affair with the Knicks was over before he could say “Where is the next party?” He suffered a knee injury and that didn’t help his career.  Spencer had more time on his hands than NBA games and depression set in and the drugs were breakfast, lunch and dinner.  In 1979 the Knicks shot an air ball to the Los Angeles Lakers and traded him, it was the beginning of his end.

Evidently, the Knicks thought, with the Lakers Spencer would feel more at home.  The Lakers were known as Drug Central of the NBA.  It was said the best high in the NBA was found in the Los Angeles Lakers locker room.  He hit rock bottom at the end of the 1979-80 season when the team suspended him in the midst of the NBA Finals because of his drug use.  Spencer went to sleep on the court while stretching.

The Lakers met the Philadelphia 76ers in game six of the NBA Championship finals, and 6’9 rookie Magic Johnson started at Center in the place of the injured Kareem Abdul Jabbar. The Lakers defeated the 76ers and Magic scored 42 points, handed out 12 assist and pulled down 15 rebounds.  Spencer never got to see the game because he was high on drugs.  The Lakers released him.  His next stop was Italy, France for a year and he then returned to the NBA to play with the Washington Bullets from 1981 to 1983.

When his contract was up in 1983 I could tell that Spencer had a lot on his mind and he still had a mission to fulfill.  One of the things we talked about was him getting his ring from the Lakers for the 1980 championship season.  He was voted a share of the money but never got his ring.  He was also concerned about his daughter Zulekha now that he and his wife Iman were having their problems.  He seemed to be more concerned about reclaiming his NBA name.

Spencer had a passion for children and had no patience for politicians who used children only as a sound bite.  He was proud of being sober from alcohol and drugs and the constant battle it took to stay that way.  I took him for his word because he never did drugs or alcohol in my presence.  Spencer knew all the athletes and sporting personalities who had drug problems in DC.  The celebrity drug community in every city is a small and close knit group.  The names he gave me I already had because of my street network.  Some these same personalities are still sitting on NBA benches and hiding behind television microphones.

The great Power Forward I once enjoyed watching was now just a shadow of himself, his greatness seldom found its way on to the basketball court at Capitol Centre.  Despite his diminishing skills he was still a great human being and a joy to be around.  He always kept it real.

He cared little about material things.  I remember when he was leaving town for over a week on a road trip with the team.  He wanted to leave his Rolls Royce with me to have it serviced while he was gone.  Hattie my wife almost had a fit and refused to allow me to keep his car.  I called Spencer and told him the bad news about her being worried about me having an accident.  He then asked me to put her on the telephone.  I gave Hattie the telephone and two minutes later she was saying “Okay.” I don’t know what he said, but Spencer had away with words.  She later told me he said “Hattie I have insurance and Harold has a license, what’s the problem?”

I was disappointed when I read the story by Tim Povtak senior NBA writer for the blog FANHOUSE how the NBA had pimp him and brought him to his knees while he tried to re-claim his name.

The story said that Spencer had tried to lobby the league for several years to name the NBA entry rule after him, like the Supreme Court that still bears his name, but that effort wilted.

I appreciate the writer Povtak being diplomatic and using the word “Lobby” instead of begging, because that is exactly what it sounded like to me.

According to Povtak, the rule has been altered a few times through the collective bargaining agreement with the union, yet the premise has remained the same.  Thanks to NBA Union Representative Billy Hunter if it ain’t about him you can count yourself out. The Billy Hunter that I know is not going to stand up for anyone but himself.  He sold Spencer out to the NBA.

Povtak goes on to say “It took the league years to gradually warm to Haywood after what he had done.  He has been sober now for 24 years.  He has spent the last 15 years as a league ambassador, traveling the world to promote the NBA.  He served as a board member for the NBA Retired Players Association.  He speaks often to young players about the pitfalls that once swallowed him.” It sounds like the NBA made him do community service to re-claim his name and they are now throwing him a bone during NBA All-Star weekend.

I am going to address the first sentence in the paragraph above, “It took the league years to warm up to Haywood after what he had done!”  What had he done?  I am reading between the lines that what Spencer had done was drugs and he fought the system that wanted to keep him from earning a living playing professional basketball.  Were the crimes he committed, crimes enforced across the board?

If the NBA is punishing Spencer for doing drugs and if drugs are the issue then the NBA Hall of Fame should be half empty.

I would hope the NBA is not punishing him for standing up for his civil rights against their bias rule on free agency.  If that is the case according to the ruling handed down by the Supreme Court they were the problem and not Spencer Haywood.

But there is a problem that is Spencer’s and his alone.  When I read he said “I have two daughters who play basketball, but even they don’t know who I am in regard to what I did once, there were times when I was beaten down so badly, I felt almost ashamed of what I did.” That was not the Spencer Haywood the proud black man that inspired me to keep telling the truth, keep my head up and stay strong!

First, Spencer, have you heard of Home Schooling? Who can teach your children about your history better than you?  Your children are your legacy and you and only you must make sure they are armed with the real story as it relates to you.

Our history is being stolen, ignored and others have used it for their own financial gain for over 400 years, for example; “Inside Sports” was a title my wife Hattie thought of in 1973 for my new radio sports talk show.  John Walsh a writer for the Style section of the Washington Post decided in 1978 to take our title to New York City and discover Inside Sports Magazine.  He followed the same pattern of Christopher Columbus when he discovered America with native Indians already occupying the land.

This was my fault I should have trademarked the name as I was advised from the very beginning.  I made it easy for him.  Guess who owns the trade mark to Inside Sports, how about News Week Magazine and the Washington Post newspaper?  When I changed my show title to The Original Inside Sports, Walsh changed the magazine’s title to The Original Inside Sports Magazine! Walsh left a paper trail that Ray Charles and Stevie Wonder could follow (http://www.espnmediazone.com/bios/Walsh_John.htm).  It is too bad it was not murder he committed in America what he did is called “White Collar Crime,” people like Walsh don’t have original ideas of their own so they take from others.

Spencer, you had a front row seat as the NBA and Billy Hunter proved they could care less about your pioneering efforts.  There will be black brothers in media who will congratulate you on your pioneering efforts at NBA All-Star weekend.  The faces will look familiar so ask them “where have you been for the past 24 years?” See if Billy Hunter can look you in your eyes and say “Spencer I tried.” Keep it real!

Our history will be overlooked and made out to be a joke if we don’t take charge, for example; Mike & Mike celebrated Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King’s birthday recently on their morning show heard and seen on ESPN nationally.  Mike Greenberg in a discussion about Rev. King called him out of his name when he referred to him as “Rev. Dr. Martin Luther Coon King, Jr.” The silence from blacks heard, seen and read at media outlets like PTI, FANHOUSE, AROUND THE HORN, WASHINGTON POST and USA TODAY was deafening.  Not a protested word was heard or read!

Boxing promoter Don King says “Racism is the biggest business in the world.” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PB8aUCvjUnY).

Spencer, if we don’t keep our own history it won’t be kept.  Most will celebrate Black History Month the same way NBC television tried to do in New York City.  The cafeteria’s black chef made up a menu of fried chicken, collar greens, potato salad, chitlings, yams and cornbread and a drink of choice (no desert, watermelon was out of season).  The menu title “Black History Month Menu All You Can Eat.”

What happen to food for thought with names on the menu like, Harriet Tubman, Marcus Garvey, Jackie Robinson, Thurgood Marshall, William DuBoise, Paul Roberson and the list goes on and on?

In 1993, Jill Nelson penned a book titled “Volunteer Slavery” as it related to black writers and employees of the Washington Post newspaper.  According, to her book when she joined the Washington Post in 1986 she became a Volunteer Slave.  Jill and Spencer have something in common, twenty-four years later little or nothing has changed.

In all honesty and fairness we cannot continue to lay all the blame of racism at the doorstep of the NBA and the Washington Post.  We (Blacks) must take some responsible for not being able to see the forest for the trees!

Check and see who owns and calls the shots at BET, Essence Magazine, Radio One and TV One.  Ebony Magazine recently sold their archives to the Internet giant Google.  This means in the future if we want information about our history we are going to have to buy it from Warner Brothers, Comcast and Google.

In 2010, forty-two years after the assassination of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, I have to ask myself why is it we have not developed our own giants in media?  Where are our media outlets that can compare with or challenge, CBS, NBC, ABC, Fox News, CNN, USA Today, Washington Post, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Vanity Fair, etc?

Where are the voices in black media who we can compare with or challenge Larry King, Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity, Russ Limbaugh, Howard Stern, Diane Sawyer, Barbra Waters and Katie Couric?

The more things change the more they remain the same.  Mississippi and two-dollars a day are not as far away as we think!

If you see my friend Spencer give him this message from Smokey Robinson http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_KKyw8V-l0.

To learn more about Spencer Haywood, click here to buy his book, “Spencer Haywood’s The Rise, The Fall, The Recovery.”