2006: THE STAR LEDGER - KNICKS: Good-guy Hill at root of Rose

Tuesday, February 07, 2006 (GREENBURGH, N.Y.) -- Everywhere he's gone, Jalen Rose has brought a big smile, an astute understanding of the game he plays so well, and a mixed reputation. He's selfish, they say. He's friendly, but manipulative. He's a scorer, but he's more interested in piling up statistics than in winning. He's smart, yes, but he's shrewd, like a locker-room lawyer. He was traded by four teams, and benched by both Larry Brown and Isiah Thomas. But those are the same two who just grabbed him from Toronto. Now, in his 12th season, we are still trying to figure out if Rose is a whole new player, or a misunderstood guy carrying baggage that doesn't even belong to him. And don't tiptoe around the subject with Rose either, because he faces it head-on. He's heard what they've been saying about him for years, ever since high school when people compared him to Grant Hill, who might be the Beaver Cleaver of the NBA compared to Rose. "I always had the reputation of being this loudmouthed kid from the west side of Detroit who grew up as (an illegitimate child), never knew his father," Rose said. "It's like, 'if he wasn't in the NBA he would probably be somewhere trying to rob somebody and sell drugs.'" This is what Rose has been hearing since the day he entered the NBA, selected by the Denver Nuggets 13th overall, 10 spots below Hill in the wild Knicks/Rangers/O.J. summer of 1994. In fact, he still has the videotape of draft night when, even before he shook David Stern's hand, a commentator called him "uncoachable." "Where does that come from?" he asked rhetorically yesterday. "I hadn't played a minute in the NBA yet." It comes, he firmly believes, from his days at Michigan as a member of the Fab Five, and that comparison to Hill. For Magic, there was Bird. For Rose, there is Hill. Despite the fact the two are rather friendly, Hill is the Mr. Hyde to Rose's Dr. Jekyll, the sun to his cloudy day. Hill and Rose are contemporaries, dating to their under-13 days in AAU before they faced off in the 1992 NCAA Championship game that pitted the "good guy" Duke Blue Devils against Michigan's Fab Five -- that brash, talented, trend-setting group of kids who stormed college basketball back in 1992 with their elongated shorts, black socks, Final Four appearances, and retroactive NCAA violations. "That was always my positive rival, so to speak," Rose said of Hill. "We get along real well and we've been playing against each other since we were 13. But he was always portrayed as the good guy, and I was the bad guy." The comparison gets deeper, and when you're compared to Grant Hill, it's hard coming off as the nicer guy. Hill's dad is Calvin Hill, an Ivy Leaguer and former running back with the Dallas Cowboys. Rose's dad is Jimmy Walker, who played for the Pistons, Rockets and Kansas City Kings. But Walker has yet to meet his son face to face. He wasn't sitting in the stands that night in '92 the way Calvin Hill was. "He came from the prestigious family," Rose said about Grant Hill, "his mom went to school with Hillary Rodham Clinton and he went to Duke, the good school, while I went to the University of Michigan; a great school, but they used to talk about it like it was UNLV or something. "His dad went to Yale and was an athlete just like mine, but the difference is, his dad was part of his life and he got all positive reflections from that and the reputation that his family upholds. My relationship with my dad was estranged because we never met. "People always put that on me, and obviously the Fab Five reputation didn't help either for people who wanted to put negative energy on a group of 18-year-olds who used to wear big shorts, black shoes and black socks." Years later, Rose still feels he is fighting that reputation, even though he is known for dedicated charity work and a cooperative and approachable way with fans and media. Also, he points out that on almost every team he has played for, excluding only the Nuggets in his first two years, Rose was a captain. Obviously, Brown and Thomas weren't scared off by the reputation or from their past dealings with him. "As you get older your views change and you mature a lot," Thomas said. "The way he thought at 28 is totally different from the way he thinks at 33. People who know him respect what he brings to the table." Whatever Rose brings to the table, he has brought on his own, without his father, and somehow doesn't hold any grudges. They have communicated through e-mail five or six times, he estimates, and spoken on the phone twice. One day, he says, they will meet. "If he's anything like me, and I'm sure he is, I would think his pride is telling him he wants to come into my life when I'm done playing," Rose said. "I'll give him that respect, and that's what I go to bed believing every night. "It's hard, but I had a great mom and great family situation. It's not like I'm homeless living under a freeway. He gave me a seed and I'm very happy with my life. That's a direct result, I'm sure, of that seed." That's a reputation worth savoring. BY DAVID WALDSTEIN -- Star-Ledger Staff © 2006 The Star Ledger © 2006 NJ.com All Rights Reserved.