Legitimate rationale for hating the Duke basketball program abounds. And there are plenty of tourist, bandwagon, poseur, or “entry level” reasons to possess hatred for Duke basketball. You have to read both of these pieces to truly get the gist. Read the poseur reasons to hate Duke basketball, as well as the legitimate cause for Duke basketball vitriol, and you’ll see where you fit within the spectrum of Duke basketball acrimony.
Final Four time is the right time to be hating on Duke. Especially so for Michigan State fans.
Obviously, the idea for exploring Duke basketball hatred originates from having viewed and vivisected the ESPN 30 for 30 “I hate Christian Laettner.” You can easily write about that documentary, the greatest 30 for 30 of all time, all month. Now it’s time to pick up where Rory Karpf’s doc about Laettner left off.
1. Because they’re very white and they all seem entitled and rich
Not everyone who goes to Duke is a trust fund baby and the offspring of a 1-percenter. Many Duke basketball players and Duke students are actually in that 47% of the country that Mitt Romney despises. And remember “when you assume, you make an ass of u and me.” So don’t paint Duke basketball with such a board brush. Even though it’s really fun to do so.
That covers the class issue. In terms of race, well, if you hate Duke basketball because they’re white, it’s not reverse discrimination, or reverse racism, it’s just plain old discrimination and racism. Wisconsin and Notre Dame are every bit as white as Duke basketball, if not whiter, but people don’t hate on Fighting Irish hoops or Badger b-ball.
2. They consistently win and grab the blue chip recruits
“Don’t player hate, player participate.”
Jabari Parker, Jahlil Okafor and Jon Scheyer choose Duke basketball over Illinois basketball or any other team in the state because Duke is Duke, the Illini are the Illini and the rest of the state has been a complete mess for quite some time. In 2005, the landscape was drastically different, but that’s a decade ago now. The concepts of history and tradition don’t resonate with this generation’s youth, so if you want to get the best guys, you need to be the best guys, today, tomorrow and next year.
Besides, once Coach K brings the top talent into Durham, he does a great job getting everyone to fit and work together on the court. Krzyzewski gets all the McDonald’s All-Americans to buy in.
3. You think Duke basketball bends and/or breaks the rules
Like LaDanian Tomlinson famously said: “if you ain’t cheating, you ain’t trying.” How much your program cheats is directly proportional to how many times you hear media pundits claim “XYZ does it the RIGHT WAY.” We hear “Duke basketball does it the right way” incessantly. On the court, they certainly do. Krzyzewski certainly gets everybody playing the game the right way.
Off the court, well everyone who’s successful has skeletons in the closet. Many just hasn’t seen their dirty laundry made public yet. Don’t single out the Dukies- it’s the system that’s broken. As Chris Rock famously said “don’t hate the player, hate the game.” Or to put it in Jerry Tarkanian’s words, “Nine out of ten coaches are cheating, and the one who isn’t is in last place.”
4. You are a Kentucky fan
You got to admire John Calipari for what he’s been able to do: working a fatally flawed system to his advantage. You got to respect the passion and devotion of Big Blue Nation. Kentucky fans are in “March madness mode” year round. As college hoops is my favorite sport, I totally respect and advocate this way of life. However, the #BBN has no right to complain about anything right now. They’ve got it great now. They’ve had it pretty good recently too. Kentucky fans can hate on Louisville and Florida all they want, but not Duke basketball.
5. You hate the Yankees, Red Sox, Patriots, Cowboys, SEC Football, Florida St., Lakers, Lebron etc.
Obviously, ESPN did their part in creating the Duke basketball monster, just like they have with all the bandwagon, tourist fan teams listed above. Yes, if you’re a fan of these frat-boy front-runner teams, you might or might not be a poseur fan. However, why is railing against the establishment, just for the sake of raging against the machine, any better than jumping on the bandwagon? Whether you conform to the assimilated sports culture or conform to defining yourself in opposition, you’re still conforming.
Paul M. Banks owns, operates and writes The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with Fox Sports Digital. You can read Banks’ feature stories and op-eds in the Chicago Tribune RedEye newspaper and hear his regular guest spots on numerous sports talk radio stations all across the country.
Follow him on Twitter (@paulmbanks)