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. Coach K receives soft, kid gloves treatment from the media
How the school decided to handle the case of Rasheed Sulaimon (detailed here) was indeed scandalous. However, the national media totally buried the story. Though it was a really big deal, ESPN and company still glossed over it completely. Everyone gives Duke soft coverage, not just ESPN. When FOX presented #CoachK1K live, it was the cheesiest college basketball production that we’ve ever seen. It wasn’t just cheesy, it was melted gorgonzola over slabs of brie with a giant hunk of rocquefort on the side. Even Disney would blush upon viewing FOX’s pablum.
Ripping on ESPN’s well known Duke basketball bias is old hat. Dickie V. (or shall we call him Dukie V.) is so over-the-top with his Blue Devils cheerleading that he makes your average Duke Basketball press release look like a journalist doing an expose. Jay Bilas, ESPN’s best college basketball analyst, is likely the most prodigious college hoops expert in America right now. He offers top notch analysis and insight, and although I’ve never really observed much pro Duke bias in his coverage, you must remember that he is a former Duke basketball player and a former Duke basketball assistant coach.
Even though Bilas plays it fair, the fact that he’s so interwoven with the program’s fabric is another example of how the national media and Duke basketball are in bed with each other. Likewise, Jim Nantz calling a Duke basketball game is just…well, let’s move on.
2. The NCAA bends over backwards for them
This year, Duke got the easiest bracket and plenty of prime time tip-offs on the primo network. Just like every year during March Madness. The networks shuddered when the Devils got eliminated in the first round in 2012 and 2014. The NCAA, and their promotional vehicles (CBS and Turner Sports) what Duke to last as long as possible. They know where their bread is buttered. Duke basketball is honestly the most valued brand in the game. Yes, this explains the preferential treatment they get, but no one should be expected to like it.
3. How they handled Rasheed Sulaimon
Disgraceful. Morally, Mike Krzyzewski isn’t much better than Steve Alford. Yet Coach K and Duke basketball are so teflon that even this didn’t stick in the American consciousness.
4. Coach K holds some social extremist world-views
People love to claim that sports and politics don’t mix, or that they shouldn’t mix, but Coach K does it all the time. He utilizes his position of power with USA basketball to promote his ideas that American dominance and imperialism are a divine right. When it comes to foreign policy, Coach K has never met a jingoistic idea he didn’t like. Krzyzewski espouses his American hegemonic philosophies at home as well as abroad.
Coach K. has every right to use his position of wealth, power and influence to support any cause that he deems fit. Even these are often fringe Tea Party beliefs) However, we as journalists, also have the right to call out his extremist weltansschaung; as well as the way he uses basketball has a sociopolitical platform.
5. It’s fun to root against the school of the 1-percenter class
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 broad brush. Even though it’s really fun to do so.
6. You have authentic connections to any school in North Carolina
If you’re a UNC, NC State, Wake Forest, Coastal Carolina, East Carolina, Davidson etc. etc. you don’t have to explain yourself.
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)