Itty Bitty East….When I heard Charles Barkley say this, I never felt so small.  How could this be happening to me? Yes, I felt like the Big East represented me while I represented the Big East. And yes, for the 2nd year in a row, the conference will have let me down. The Big East received a record 11 teams in the dance. No conference had ever done so. Yet, with great power comes great responsibility. Only 2 teams remain in the tourney and many feel that is unacceptable for the greatest basketball conference in the land. The remaining teams, in my opinion, are not the teams that I thought could advance so far. UCONN, although they have Kemba Walker, was not one of the stronger teams in the Big East Conference this year. In Marquette, I challenge any of my readers to name three of their starters. I’m not sure why the Big East can’t get it done in the Big Dance.  I am Big East until the day they put me in a box and if I knew, trust me I’d fix it.  On the radio, when I cover Big East games, I always follow a great exciting play with the same line, “THIS IS THE BIG EAST!!!” But with the way they’ve performed I could not blame some fan from the midwest, west coast or down south maybe changing it to a question. “This…… is the Big East?”

Exposure……I’m not sure right now if I am liking this experiment.  Looks like we are all going to have to get used to it because Turner Sports has this on lock for the next 14 years. Let me first say, I love Charles Barkley, Kenny “The Jet” Smith and Ernie Grunfield on TNT covering NBA games. I love Greg Gumbell, Greg Anthony and Seth Davis on CBS doing college. Combining the two, in my opinion has been a disaster so far.  The straight laced Greg Anthony seems to be trying to see where he fits in with the comical Kenny and Charles. Obviously Kenny and Charles don’t know enough about college basketball as their comments make them both look like “Captain Obvious” when breaking down the games. It’s a contrast of styles. CBS is a real buttoned up professional type of style, while TNT is looser with lots more personality. You put them together and everyone looks out of their element. In my opinion, Charles and Kenny should have been doing some more college basketball during the year, so come tournament time, they knew the players, styles and coaches.  Right now, Kenny and Charles are just winging it. Greg Anthony is doing his normal thing. Might I say, Chuck and “The Jet” have been exposed.

WHO IS THE REAL UNCLE TOM?

So I had to touch on this again as this made huge noise last weekend. And yes, my opinion has changed. For those who live under a rock, Jalen Rose said during his documentary about The Fab Five, that when he was growing up he thought Duke only recruited blacks that he felt were “Uncle Toms.” Jalen felt like kids from the inner city or from impoverished backgrounds weren’t welcomed at Duke. I must admit, growing up I felt the same thing.  But as I watched Duke play Michigan this weekend, I starting to think more on this, realizing why I was wrong. No, I will never like Thomas Hill.  I just can’t stomach the dude because of this clip when he cries.  But I can’t label him an Uncle Tom because of it or because of the letters on his jersey.  Now I realized why Grant Hill felt he had to write what he wrote. I now realize why so many of us in the black community need to alter our thinking. Our current way of thought only further separates us in the long run. I understand that Jalen was only saying what he felt when he was 17 years old. I truly do. I know Jalen Rose doesn’t feel that way now. But let’s break down a few things.

Not just for Jalen, but it’s so wrong for many of us to judge with no true perspective, no matter what age.  Case in point, I think its fair to say we label “Uncle Toms” in the black community as someone who turns their back on the black race.  In some instances I think we believe it also to be someone who doesn’t seem to be comfortable being “black” and tends to gravitate towards the white race i.e. “talking white” dating “white women or men” not being comfortable with or accepting inner city life or poverty. Many of us feel or felt like the black men from Duke seem to fit this stigma. It could not be farther from the truth.  I’ve played with or against many players that went to Duke. Elton Brand, William Avery, Chris Carrawell, Ricky Price, Dahntay Jones, Roshown McCloud, just to name a few. Chris Carrawell was from a tough neighborhood in St. Louis, Missouri.  Ricky Price was from Gardena, California, not very far from South Central, Los Angeles.  I witnessed my AAU teammate in NJ, Roshown McCloud being dropped off in one of the most impoverished areas in Jersey City, NJ. I saw Dahntay Jones all the time at black hip- hop clubs in New Jersey trying to talk to the same black girls that I was interested in and never once did I question his “blackness”.  When thinking about this, I realized that many of our perceptions were wrong. We formed our perception on those Duke teams back in ’91′ and ’92′ who had a few white starters that beat UNLV and Michigan’s Fab Five both who had all black starters. By the way, Bobby Hurley was  from Jersey City and I distinctly remember him being the only white starter on his high school team. He and his brother Danny were the only whites on an predominately black St. Anthony High School team. No silver spoon in their mouth.

And maybe we should question this. Why do so many of us in the black community only seem to identify with a Michael Vick, an Allen Iverson, or a Jalen Rose, all of whom I love myself? Even, some of us who never grew up impoverished or in the hood?  I’m talking about the blacks who grew up with two car garages and in neighborhoods that don’t remotely resemble the inner city, but still we identify with blacks from those tough neighborhoods.  Why is that the only way we can accept each other is if we came up tough, poor and without resources? Is Grant Hill less black because his father worked hard to give him a better life? Is Donovan McNabb not black enough? Will Jalen Rose or Michael Jordan’s kids now be Uncle Toms because they didn’t dodge bullets in the hood?  I think we must alter our thinking. Must we talk with slang, and embrace poverty to prove that we are black?

Hey, I have many family members and friends from tough areas in inner city neighborhoods. But is that the only way to prove you’re black enough?  Do we want our kids to grow up, talk slang, sag their pants and move to the roughest neighborhoods in America for our black approval?  Are Jay-Z, Iverson or Diddy any more black than Grant Hill, Bill Cosby, Bob Johnson or President Obama?

By the way, I admit, I felt the same way Jalen Rose felt when I was 17.  But damn, Grant Hill married R&B singer Tamia Shouldn’t we have given him a pass just for that?

Lastly, please think about this. When blacks were slaves, we were kept uneducated, unable to read and poor as a way of keeping us subservient to the slave master.  Now here we are judging ourselves on who comes from the toughest neighborhood or who talks the “blackest” or who grew up the poorest while using all of this as a badge of honor.  I can’t help but pause and reflect while thinking, “Who is the real Uncle Tom?”