Welcome to the Wire 2 Wire Podcast! In this episode, the host Yusuf dives into the recent drama between NBA champion Jaylen Brown and managing director Grant Hill.
Hill's comments about Brown's omission from the USA Men's Olympic team being a "conspiracy theory" have sparked intense debate. Yusuf unpacks the back-and-forth, offering insightful analysis and valuable lessons that we can all learn from this situation. Don't miss this deep dive into the world of NBA politics and the wisdom it reveals! 🌟🏀
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https://redcircle.com/privacy (upbeat music) - Welcome to the Wire to Wire podcast. As always, it's me, your host, Yusev. Now, without further ado, let's just get right to it. Now, recently, Jalen Brown was passed on to become a member of the team USA Olympics team. And it was pretty obvious why he wasn't chosen. He was known to have a silent feud with Nike after calling them out on their ethics after they dropped Kyrie Irving. Now, Nike silently responded by leaving him off of the team originally. And after Kawhi Leonard dropped out, they named Derek White as his replacement. Now, this further led Jalen Brown to call out Nike. But the most interesting response came recently when Grand Hill spoke to the media. Now, I'm gonna play a clip of what he said, but before I do, you know, like this video and subscribe to the channel. Now, here's a clip of what he said. - To his agent, and, you know, I spoke to his agent. We, you know, I don't know if that was before, after, you know, things went out on Twitter. But yeah, I mean, I think this idea that there's a conspiracy theory. I always love a good conspiracy theory. But, you know, it was, it was really truly a basketball decision. And these are tough decisions, you know? But having gone through this with the feeble competition, you want to find the right balance and the right pieces on the court that we needed. And not to say that he wouldn't have been good. There's a lot of guys. You can go on a list of guys who are very capable and very, you know, very qualified. But, you know, for where we were, it was the right decision. And Derek White, I think will help us as we pursue goal. - So you heard Grand Hill there. Jaylin Brown responded by seeing the following on X, formerly known as Twitter. Grand Hill calling me a conspiracy theorist is disappointing. I've been a VP since I was 21 years old. I have a great understanding. So that's really the extent to their exchange. But what I found to be interesting and what made me really want to do this episode is the language that Grand Hill used. Now I found it equally peculiar and interesting that Grand Hill, a black man, used that term conspiracy theory in reference to Jaylin Brown. Whenever that term gets used, it immediately creates the idea as being something that's crazy, unbelievable, lacking credibility, and it's really just dismissive. It's a tool that's often weaponized to dismiss not only people, but also certain types of dialogue from taking place. Now we've especially seen it the past four years with certain topics, right? If you've been paying attention, you know what I'm talking about. And if you don't, then that's okay too. Don't worry about it. But it was a term being used widely. So to hear Grand Hill use that term, I thought was very telling. Now Jaylin Brown is great on the court, but off the court, he's intelligent, he's thoughtful, he's diligent, and he's highly educated. Now that kind of description that Grand Hill used was not just inappropriate, but it was also flat out wrong. Now for him to use it on another black man was not only wrong, but it's also condescending and outright disrespectful. Now I'm not gonna get caught up in this whole identity politics regarding the term black and who's black and who isn't. You know what I'm saying black, I'm speaking generally and all encompassing for the purpose of making this point. Now blacks are not often credited for their mental prowess and scholastic achievements. It's mostly through sports or entertainment. So for Jaylin Brown to break that mold, it is a good look and it's something that should actually be celebrated. But blacks were also widely negatively stereotyped for believing conspiracy theories. You know, rather than actually looking at the historical context of all of the different elements that transpired, right, to create a sense of distress or disbelief in certain narratives that are often pushed and levied upon us and to us. So in the case of Jaylin Brown, he can't make sense of it. He was the Eastern Conference playoffs MVP. He won an NBA championship. He was a final MVP and he's one of the best players in the world. Why can't he be on the team? Why isn't he on the team? That's not a conspiracy theory. It's a very fair question. And unfortunately, instead of addressing this with nuance and carefully substantiating the reasoning behind this decision, Grant Hill decided to use an old bias trope. So I say all this to say, what are the lessons that we can actually learn here? Now, number one, and I've discussed it on this podcast before, the quiet black man syndrome as I call it. Now, Jaylin Brown is a thoughtful young black man that doesn't fit the stereotype of what people think that he should be. And that makes them uncomfortable. Now, about five years ago, I read this book by Andre Iguidala, right? It was a good read. I read the full book, I remember it was on a, but a four to five hour flight from Toronto to Vegas, right? So I was reading it, it was a good read. And one part that really stood out to me, among the many things that he obviously discussed in the book, but there was a portion where he was describing the three types of black men, right? So number one, and of course, I'm paraphrasing here, I'm not saying literally word for word, this is just a paraphrase, quick summary, whatever you want to call it. But number one is the loud mouth, attention seeking black men, right? And he makes people comfortable because he's just doing what they expected of him. And he doesn't really upset the power structure. The second was that I'm just happy to be here, go along to get a long type of black eye, right? Now, he also makes people feel comfortable because he's not a threat to the power structure, and he's not really looking to come in and change anything, right? Like I said, he's just happy to be there. And the third is the quiet one. Now this person gets the most attention because he's viewed as a wild card. They don't really know what he's thinking or what he's up to. And his behavior is very atypical. And this is exactly what Jalen Brown is experiencing right now. Now from when I started this podcast until now, my views on race and discrimination and all of that has really started to shift from who actually does it to who the perpetrators of racism are and how it's done and what it looks like. A lot of my views have evolved and changed. I'm not gonna get into all that right now. It's a very happy topic and I probably won't be discussing it anytime soon either. But one thing that I will say is that sometimes it is carried out by the people who look like us, right? Those acts of prejudice are carried out by people who look like us, whether they know it or they don't know it. And I believe that's what we're seeing here. Now I wanna use what Andrei Guadalas said in his book. I wanna use that as a template to really drive home the point that I'm trying to make. So if you have those three categories, if I had to group someone, I would say Grand Hill is probably the second kind of black guy, right, that I described. And Jalen Brown is the third. Now I want you to look at what he did. And this is what makes it even more egregious to me when you look at it from this perspective. When Grand Hill went to Duke and he was touted to be the next Michael Jordan and he was a top prospect. The biggest criticism that was being levied to him at the time was that he wasn't black enough, right? Since he went to Duke and he came from a two-parent household, he didn't fit the stereotypical mold of what others thought it meant to be black. Now this was actually the catalyst of a longstanding feud between Grand Hill and Jalen Rose. And Jalen Rose actually called Grand Hill an Uncle Tom at one point. Now was he wrong for doing that? Absolutely, it is wrong to do that. And that's just kind of the shaming that we often see and hear of, right? And again, I want to emphasize it is wrong, right? If you come from a stable home, you speak fluent English and you have a fine education. That is a beautiful thing and that is a good thing that should be commended, applauded and respected, right? However, since Grand Hill was on the receiving end of that, don't you think he should have been more mindful not to do that same kind of behavior towards a Jalen Brown, right? And that really ties into the final point that I want to make. The final point that I really want to make and the last lesson that I really want to drive home is that people, we can sometimes forget where we came from. And I remember a friend of mine actually told me a story. So they used to live in Michigan and at one point they worked in the social assistance office for people who recently got laid off and they needed some kind of support. So they had a colleague who was laid off and at one point was dependent on this program. Now this same dude, when he got a job in the department, he became such a jerk. He would disrespect the clients, he would give them the bare minimum that's allowed and he was basically behaving like a tyrant, right? So the same program that he depended on and used in order to get back on his feet, he wanted to deny others access to that same program to be able to do the same thing. As people, we are prone to quickly forget where we came from and we can start to delude ourselves into thinking that the past is a distant memory but life can humble all of us so quickly. Grant Hill has done well for himself and that is a good thing. I love to see people do well. But he, like many of us are, are one bad decision, one mistake or one wrong sentence away from potentially having everything put in jeopardy. Now this goes for me as much as it goes for anyone else. It's important that we remember how far we've come and use that journey as a source of humility and gratitude instead of a source of arrogance. Now I'm not saying that Grant Hill is arrogant. I'm just using this situation as a backdrop to speak to a larger conversation, right? However, these comments, they were distasteful and I think it's unfortunate because he himself was on the receiving end pause of some unfair and unflattering comments, right? So you should have exercised more understanding, voice, tact and thoughtfulness and how he responded to what Jaylen Brown had to say. And I believe that in this situation, there's actually a good lesson in it for all of us. But that's all I got for you guys today. Be sure to like this video and subscribe to the channel. You can also follow me in the podcast on Instagram and TikTok. You can also check out my books and the link will be in the description. Until next time. (upbeat music) (upbeat music)
