I Hate Christian Laettner - 30 for 30

[DMC]

Dude was in the dream team because the olympic teams used to be college guys and we wanted to put one college player there. Team needed someone to carry the bags. I think he would have had a much better career if he wasn't ed in the head by that selection.

[jjktkk]

Laettner was a great college basketball player, but just meh as a NBA player. Its funny how back in the late 80's and 90's, NBA teams overrated players like Laettner, Danny Ferry, and Keith Van Horn.

[Infinite_limit]

Laettner was a great college basketball player, but just meh as a NBA player. Its funny how back in the late 80's and 90's, NBA teams overrated players like Laettner, Danny Ferry, and Keith Van Horn.

All 3 of those guys would be dominant players today

[JoeTait75]

I actually think it's awesome how much Laettner has embraced the hatred for him and trolled his haters in recent years. The round of commercials with him, Shaq, Drexler, and Dr. J running during the NCAA tournament this year have been interesting, but the one with him "resting on his laurels" is still another way that he's taken the hate and used it to his advantage.

You can say a lot of things about Laettner as an NBA player (though I think you do have to note that he was good enough later in his career, once he left some really crappy teams) to make an All-Star team and managed to hang around for more than a decade to make a solid career for himself.

But as a college player, he's on a very short list of the guys who had great college success because they were great college players. His shots against UConn and Kentucky in the regionals are absolutely iconic and he generally played well in big games -- for instance, he was great in the 1991 semifinal against Vegas and he played a terrific regular season game at LSU against Shaq in 1991 (the year Duke beat Vegas in the National Semifinal).

In four Regional Final games- the biggest games in the Tourney behind the le game, IMO- Laettner went 31-of-34 (91.1%) from the field, 34-of-37 from the line (91.8%) and hit two game-winning shots with his team down by one point. You don't get any more clutch than that.

[benefactor]

As for the Doc, it was OK. I hate Rob Lowe, so his annoying narration sort of annoyed me, and the whole five items of hatred was dumb.

Rob has made a bit of comeback with the satellite commercials though. I agree the five items thing was stupid.

It was pretty good. You forget just how good he was in college until they rehash all that he did. Lot's of great basketball memories relived.

[Thread]

and the whole five items of hatred was dumb.

JM

[JMarkJohns]

Rob has made a bit of comeback with the satellite commercials though. I agree the five items thing was stupid.

It was pretty good. You forget just how good he was in college until they rehash all that he did. Lot's of great basketball memories relived.

Next commercial needs to be Beating A Dead Horse Rob Lowe.

And maybe the average fan forgets how great a college player Laettner was, but anyone in the know understands he was the greatest college player of his generation, and arguably the best collegiate career since Wooden's UCLA stars like Walton.

People hate him for reasons no five pronged attack justify or explain. Most people hate him because they know people hate him.

But he's one of the 10 best college players of all time, and is a hall of Famer on his collegiate successes. People like to diminish his place on Dream Team, but not one of the NBA members had his collegiate career. Not one. He far and a way deserved the honor, and being a Duke boy, with Jordan having so much sway in roster makeup, I doubt he was an easy inclusion.

Did his career amount to much in the NBA? No. You can argue he disappointed. But the idea he was a flop is wrong. Statistically he was good his first 8 years.

But I grew up watching basketball from the late 80s onward and a lot of the Laettner hate developed after the fact. Most people didn't hate Duke until the late 90s and the overexposure through media types like Dukie V.

People forget that Duke was actually a bit of a jilted bride through the 80s, never winning a le. Sure they had their detractors, but I remember going to school and everybody loved Duke. They are almost a lovable underdog, the Hoosiers of college. Then came the hype after Laettner, then came the excess of ACC coverage, and then came the favoritism from refs (or at least perceived), and then hatred was born out of familiarity, and the "embarrassment" that many casual fans once rooted for Duke over teams like Rebels, Razorbacks, Wolverines, etc, maybe for reasons of race, maybe region, maybe socio-economic, or maybe skill. But much of the hatred was born of self hatred. Laettner in his NBA disappointments became the epitome of Duke fatigue only after the fact.

[Thread]

Most people hate him because they know people hate him.

Absolutely, + been told by Media to hate him because it feathers their cap.

[cantthinkofanything]

Absolutely, + been told by Media to hate him because it feathers their cap.

I hated him because he was on teams that kept beating the teams I liked. Plain and simple. I hated Duke. Hated most of the players as well as Coach K. And it wasn't necessarily Laettner's at ude, looks, or whiteness that made him the focal point for the hate. It was the fact that he was usually the one making the shots that did the other team in.

Once he left Duke, I really didn't care about him either way. I will say that that I can now look back and give him all the credit he deserves. In the past, I would come up with asterisks and excuses to explain that he wasn't that good.

[baseline bum]

Even though I was a Georgetown fan I always ing loved Laettner in college.

[JoeTait75]

.But I grew up watching basketball from the late 80s onward and a lot of the Laettner hate developed after the fact. Most people didn't hate Duke until the late 90s and the overexposure through media types like Dukie V.

I recall the Duke hatred kicking into high gear in 1991-92, the year after they beat Vegas, when Laettner was a senior and for the first time they were the 800-pound gorilla of college basketball. I remember a lot of complaining after the '92 Tournament bracket came out, with people calling the East Regional the "Duke Invitational" because neither Kentucky (2nd seed) or UMass (3rd seed) was seen as a worthy opponent for the Blue Devils. And people didn't just hate Laettner on that team- they hated Bobby Hurley, too. Also remember the rumors surrounding Laettner and Brian Davis.

[JMarkJohns]

I'm probably not the target hatred audience, since Arizona beat Laettner's Duke teams twice and struggled with Tark's Runnin' Rebels, whom we're denied perfection by Laettner's Duke team, so the enemy/enemy/friend argument.

But I know growing up Duke was extremely popular, had a sort of underdog quality (likely playing into racial makeup) and was a team other than your team you could root for and feel fine because they played the game hard, the right way, and they beat the loudmouth upstarts of Rebels, and Wolverines, etc.

I mean, I hate Duke now, but I blame ESPN and the 2001 le game where Jat Williams and Battier and Dunleavey and Boozer and Duhon got away with everything en route to defeating Arizona, a preseason #1 who lost team mom and Lute's wife, Bobbi Olson, to Cancer midway through the season, struggled with the loss, lost, then rallied. They should have had a 30 for 30 season and the ing Dukies ended it one win shy.

That's my hatred.

But I loved watching Laettner. I had no problems with Duke in that era.

Have no ill will toward him now.

[JMarkJohns]

I recall the Duke hatred kicking into high gear in 1991-92, the year after they beat Vegas, when Laettner was a senior and for the first time they were the 800-pound gorilla of college basketball. I remember a lot of complaining after the '92 Tournament bracket came out, with people calling the East Regional the "Duke Invitational" because neither Kentucky (2nd seed) or UMass (3rd seed) was seen as a worthy opponent for the Blue Devils. And people didn't just hate Laettner on that team- they hated Bobby Hurley, too. Also remember the rumors surrounding Laettner and Brian Davis.

I'm not saying there wasnt hatred. Obviously there was. But the hatred of Laeetner is like the claim of attending Woodstock: you're a lot cooler if you say you we're there.

Hating Laettner was a movement after the fact. Sure it existed in the early 90s, but it festered and grew after the fact where you ain't cool, unless you hated Duke from the beginning. Duke is a nerd school. Duke is a white school. Duke is an en led school. Duke has too much success. Duke stars flop in the NBA, proving they can't thrive apart from privileges of Duke.

Duke and K have four les and more runnerups.

It was a lot of things and Laettner became the crystallized epicenter of it all, but the radiating lines of hatred, the farther you get from the center, the less conviction-based and more convenience-based the hatred is. It's easy and popular.