By Grissim Anderson, Andrew Danowitz, Drew Greene, and Justin Pickett
Introduction
Duke University is a world-renowned institution that holds incredible weight in both academics and athletics. The school is mainly known for its world-class education and prominent basketball team. The basketball team at Duke has had tremendous success under coach Mike Krzyzewski. Over the past four decades, the program has grown into one of the best and most well-known powerhouses in the country. With 13 Final Fours, 15 ACC championships, and 5 national championships, the program under Coach K has been virtually unstoppable. However, with such success, many college hoops fans despise the Blue Devils.
Among the hatred for the team, there is also a hatred for Duke’s white players. Duke has had many great white players over the years, but there is a trio of white players that are hated the most: Grayson Allen (2014-2018), Christian Laettner (1988-92), and JJ Redick (2002-2006). The trio remains disliked among many fans across America, despite not having played at Duke for many years. In a sport largely dominated by African Americans, these white players were in the minority. The outcasts seemed to stand for something larger than basketball.
In this essay, we focus on four reasons for the hatred towards white Duke basketball players. The first section discusses Duke’s prestige and the stereotypes that it entails. The second section examines the immense success of Duke basketball in the Coach K era, with many fans rooting for the underdog against Duke. The third section highlights the numerous controversies surrounding Christian Laettner, Grayson Allen, and JJ Redick that resulted in the players receiving negative national media attention. The fourth section explores the contrast of Duke basketball’s traditional style with Michigan and UNLV’s modern, more Afrocentric styles.
Duke as a stereotypically wealthy, white university
Duke University is one of the most elite universities in the world. Consequently, the stereotypical Duke student is wealthy and white. Some people believe that Duke embodies the entitled children of the white elite who grew up spoiled. The perceived whiteness of Duke is taken as a symbol of the upper class controlling and continuing their generational success.
While this stereotype only holds true for a portion of the student population, it stands as the university’s reputation in many people’s minds. The white Duke basketball players were viewed in this negative light, being the face of such a negative image. Opposing fans deemed these players as villains across the country. The players utilized a rough style of play but seemed to get away with everything, which people then associated with the privileged, white nature of the university. Etan Thomas, a former NBA player, described Duke’s team as such: “They reeked of entitlement and embodied everything somany people despised in a way that went beyond sports. They had an air about them like I’m better than you. Not just on the basketball court, but as human beings. Just overall elitists. And that’s what we thought Duke really embodied: a superiority complex.
”Duke’s white villains stood for status, wealth, and elitism, but that is not how they grew up. JJ Redick was born in Cookeville, Tennessee, a small city of around 30,000 people in the heart of Tennessee. He later moved to Roanoke, Virginia with his family, where he was named Virginia Mr. Basketball in 2002 and three-time Virginia Gatorade Player of the Year. The son of potters, his upbringing on a farm is a stark contrast to the typical image of a Duke student with which he is often associated.
Redick did not live lavishly as a child. His basketball experience did not consist of luxurious facilities and expensive training. In an interview with NBA.com, Redick describes his time shooting hoops as a kid: “We didn’t have outdoor lights, so I put our lawnmower at the top of the key, got an extension cord and took one of my dad’s lamps and attached it to the lawnmower so it would shine in the goal,” he said. “I couldn’t shoot 3s from the left corner because there was a branch in the way. It had a gravel and dirt court, and there were some uneven spots, but that’s where I did a lot of my shooting.”
Similarly, Christian Laettner did not represent the Duke stereotype either. He grew up in Angola, New York, just south of Buffalo. He was the grandson of Polish immigrants who spoke Polish as their primary language. His mother was a teacher, and his father was a newspaper plant printer. Laettner was fortunate enough to attend private school; however, he received financial aid and even did some custodial work to cut down on the cost. Overall, the players who were seen to embody elitism grew up in normal, working-class homes.
Duke basketball’s white villains are just a representation of the hatred for white elitism. People often tend to envy and dislike those more privileged than themselves, or at least who they perceive to be more privileged. Stereotypes misrepresent the larger populations they generalize, but people are quick to attempt to find those that confirm them.
Duke basketball: a winning program
Although much of the hatred surrounding Duke basketball stems from the white players’ role in perpetuating the university’s stereotypes, Duke is partly hated because of their success in recent decades.
Everyone hates a winner. Everyone roots for an underdog. David vs. Goliath, Giants vs. Patriots, and the American Revolution—all examples that James Jefferson utilizes in his 2008 op-ed. Jefferson sums up his argument beautifully: “We hate winners, don't we? Love to see them crash and burn. Any loss, injury, or arrest to a winner puts a smile on our face.”
In recent decades, Duke has been the epitome of a winner. Since Coach K’s arrival in 1980, Duke has reached 13 Final Fours and won five national championships. Krzyzewski amassed over 1,200 wins in his career, and Duke spoiled the dreams of the all-Black Fab Five of Michigan in the 1992 championship by 20 points and theHorizon League’s Butler Bulldogs in 2010, who fell just short after Gordon Hayward’s potential game-winning half-court heave clanked off the iron at the buzzer.
Historically, the same six teams have dominated college basketball. These six schools—Duke (5 national championships), Kansas (4), Kentucky (8), Indiana (5), UCLA (11), and UNC (6)—are coined the “Blue Bloods.” The Final Four regularly features at least one of these six teams, and winning the title is common for them. Each of these schools comes from a Power Five conference, or a conference known for elite performance in a sport. Duke and UNC come from the Atlantic Coast Conference, Indiana comes from the Big Ten Conference, Kansas comes from the Big 12, Kentucky from the Southeastern Conference, and UCLA from the Pacific-12 Conference. Apart from the six total by Connecticut (4) and Villanova (2), Power Five schools have won every national championship since Duke’s first title in 1991.
Duke’s success on the court established the team as a major brand. White players thrived under pressure, performing exceptionally well in key games. Combined with stereotypes of privilege and pretentiousness, spectators began to associate Duke basketball with chippy, intense white players on the court who played well when it mattered. I could pick out several players that embody this, particularly Christian Laettner’s shot in the Elite Eight against Kentucky. However, I will focus on the more recent Grayson Allen as an example of the gritty, successful Duke basketball player.
Grayson Allen received significant attention following his jaw-dropping performance in the 2015 national championship, scoring 16 points in just 21 minutes off the bench to ignite the team to a 68-63 victory over Wisconsin. Despite his small role as a freshman, only averaging 4 points in 9 minutes per game throughout the regular season, Allen stepped up when the team needed him most—with stars Jahlil Okafor and Justise Winslow in foul trouble. His aggression and intensity quickly became evident. He laid out for loose balls and pounded his chest after an and-one, dashing Wisconsin’s hopes for their first national championship since 1941.
Legendary announcer Dick Vitale commented on Allen’s passion for the game after diving to save a ball from going out of bounds less than eight minutes into the game: “You think about playing with passion, you think about playing with pride, they play for the name on the front of their jersey. Nothing like college basketball! Nothing like the pursuit of the national championship!”
With Duke’s reputation for winning, it makes sense that opposing fans hate the team as much as they do. Often led by white players including two-time national champion Christian Laettner, second all-time ACC leading scorer JJ Redick, and national champion Grayson Allen, Duke upholds the traditional “Blue Blood” status while also maintaining its status as an elite, private university. As the stars of the team, fans “love to see them crash and burn.”
White Duke players and controversy
While the previous section explains how these notable white Duke athletes were very successful, this section will now talk about how many of these athletes committed controversial plays that has resulted in them being chastised to this day. Arguably the three most hated Duke basketball players are JJ Redick, Grayson Allen, and Christian Laettner. While Allen and Laettner are guilty of committing hostile acts (listed below), JJ Redick maintained a clean sheet on the basketball court while at Duke and was primarily just hated because he was white and successful. Though he never committed an aggressive act while on the court to an opposing player, Redick was arrested for drunken driving shortly after graduating, which may have perpetuated the Duke stereotype.
Before diving into the specific incidents of why Laettner and Allen are hated, there is a large periodization aspect to why these star players are hated as well. Starting with Allen, he did not play much during his freshman year at Duke until the national championship game against Wisconsin. Dick Vitale commented on Allen during the game: “He’s a star being born, man. The nation’s gonna get to know this kid, #3".
”The last part of Vitale’s statement quickly became true. Once Allen became a public figure in the national championship game, he already started receiving some preliminary hate from the media solely because he was “annoying” to watch and because he helped Duke win a national championship. After this game, the pressure was on Allen, and his notoriety led to him being in the spotlight for scrutiny.
Grayson Allen is the most recent example of a white Duke basketball player who is universally hated. Grayson had multiple tripping incidents and heated altercations with opposing players during his time at Duke. For example, when Allen was a sophomore, he went viral after he tripped Louisville’s Ray Spalding and received a flagrant foul. This was his first controversial offense, and the media took advantage of Allen for living up to the stereotypical Duke student. A few weeks later, Allen tripped a player on Florida State but was not suspended by the ACC after an investigation into the incident. He certainly had a target on his back for the rest of the season, though the criticism appeared manageable, and he was able to play without getting flustered.
At the start of next season, Allen had almost fully cleared his name. He became the captain of the Duke basketball team and would barely receive any denunciations from opposing crowds. However, there was another incident against Elon that made this season much worse for Allen. His shots were not falling against Elon, resulting in him visibly tripping an opposing player as he was falling to the ground. Allen let his emotions of not playing well get the best of him and would pay the price for the rest of his Duke career (and into his professional career as well). In the short term, Duke suspended him indefinitely and Coach K stripped of his captain status. In the long term, however, this was the incident that stuck with Grayson—he was egregiously booed at every away game for the rest of his career. The tripping incidents were the downfall for Allen and stayed with him until leaving Duke in 2018.
Additionally, Christian Laettner had a quite controversial encounter when he stomped on a Kentucky player’s chest during the NCAA Tournament. During the second half of the game against Kentucky, Laettner took his foot and stepped on Aminu Timberlake after the play was over. He received a technical foul and later in the game, Laettner hit a shot to help Duke prevail against Kentucky.
After the game was over, Laettner said: “That's just part of the game, there was nothing vengeful in it. I had to put my foot down because I needed some balance. I didn't step hard.” Laettner always played with an edge and was widely regarded as one of the most passionate players in college basketball. This edge mixed with him being a white basketball player from Duke made for a very dislikable combination.
After these events, both Laettner and Allen were prone to receiving hard fouls from the opposition and obnoxiously vulgar boos and hate comments from away crowds. Looking back at the incidents, Allen comments: "I can laugh about it now, but at the time I'm 20 years old waking up and seeing this on ESPN. This is terrible. I can't get outside myself when I'm playing. I'm constantly thinking about what I'm doing on the court because it feels like even if we have Jayson Tatum and Luke Kennard on our team scoring 20 points, that's the story."
There clearly have been lasting impacts for Allen, but he would also probably say his time at Duke was a learning experience. The “white villains” at Duke will certainly continue because ofthese former incidents and is something that future Duke players will need to learn to deal with while playing at Duke.
Traditional Duke basketball faces modern basketball style
For a long time, basketball was seen as a predominantly white sport. Basketball fans heavily scrutinized Black players prior to the major influx of Black players throughout the mid-20th century. However, as the game evolved, people began to see a new sense of culture in the game of basketball. Basketball had this new swagger to its name with teams like Michigan's "Fab Five" or the UNLV Rebels, the West Coast powerhouse from the Big West Conference.
The 1991-92 Michigan Wolverines men's basketball players, known collectively as the “Fab Five”—Chris Webber, Jalen Rose, Juwan Howard, Jimmy King, and Ray Jackson—were five Black true freshmen who starred on a title-hunting roster. Everyone wanted to be like Michigan’s "Fab Five." As a new era of hip hop and black culture were on the rise in the early 1990s, the sports world transformed; Michigan was at the top of the list in helping advertise it. These young men were idolized like kings. Everybody wanted to be like them, wear baggy shorts like them, rock the newest Jordans, and have gold chains around their necks. It was seen as a swagger, and people loved it. Even former Duke basketball player Grant Hill (1990-1994) acknowledged his fascination with the Fab Five, his fierce rival on the court.
Contrarily, Christian Laettner and the Duke Blue Devils were seen as the preppy, rich, old-fashioned white kids. In the 1992 national championship game, these two powerhouses collided on one of the biggest stages in sport. Duke came in with a 33-2 record, while Michigan came in at 25-8. Michigan saw Laettner as a “pussy” and a “bitch,” as said by Jalen Rose, who thought Laettner would not be able to play physically enough with the Wolverines for two halves. In later years, Rose doubled down on his disdain towards Duke basketball players, going as far as referring to Black players on Duke, including Grant Hill, as “Uncle Toms.”
However, Laettner proved them wrong. He attacked the basket all game, resulting in blows to his body. Laettner took a beating but was unwilling to sit back and take it; he fought back, which fueled both teams with even more anger. Duke, led by Laettner and point guard Bobby Hurley, eventually coasted to a 71-51 victory and the team’s second consecutive national championship. Laettner asserted his presence in the game, playing physical, chippy, and even a little dirty for Duke to pull out the win.
College basketball fans perceived Christian Laettner as such a villain because he was someone who won at the cost of sacrificing his reputation and making many enemies along the way. As a result of Laettner and Duke’s success, Duke as a university had a big target on its back, and the opposing team’s crowd would always bring their A Game whenever they were playing Duke.
Conclusion
Grayson Allen and Christian Laettner have both said that they have moved on from these confrontations, but they certainly will not forget all the interactions that they experienced during their time at Duke. Being a Duke fan, it is hard to constantly support both Allen and Laettner when you watch the plays we have mentioned. We also understand that when you attend a university with a reputation like Duke’s, people are going to try and get under your skin.
While white Duke basketball players have committed some questionable acts that have led to scrutiny from the public, a lot of the criticism and hate they receive is predicated around their success. Coach K built a world-class program—when one of his players would mess up, it became the headline for every national sports media outlet. Although the Jon Scheyer era is approaching for Duke basketball, future recruits who decide to play for Duke should not expect anything to change regarding the pressure and short leash that comes with playing at Duke basketball.
Stomp: https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/wdrb.com/content/tncms/ass…
Breathe if you hate Duke: https://wps3.dbknews.com/uploads/2019/05/2013-02-07becbfe794f8787e12ed1…
Allen Trip: https://i.insider.com/585b1b2fee14b61c008b4b64?width=1136&format=jpeg
Laettner: https://www.ncaa.com/_flysystem/public-s3/images/2020-05/Christian-Laet…
I still hate Laettner: https://www.zagsblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/laettner.jpg
Redick/Allen/Laettner: https://medium.com/@bradcallas/the-10-most-hated-dukies-of-all-time-b43…