Christian Laettner

[Colonel_Reb]

I was inspired to begin this topic by two things. 1. J.J. Reddick and 2. An ESPN documentary I saw yesterday. It was called "The Laettner Game". It was not a perfect documentary, nor was it without bias. However, it was the best I have seen on a white guy in a long time. The story centered on Duke's 1992 National Championship team, and more specifically, their NCAA Regional Final win over Kentucky 104-103 in overtime.
I remember the game like it was yesterday. Laettner was perfect that day, 10 for 10 from the floor and 10 for 10 from the foul line. He shot the game winner with 2.1 seconds left. He had done the same thing in the same game 2 years earlier when he was a sophomore. I had almost forgotten how dominating Laettner was in college. He was arrogant too, and believed he was the best, and consequently he was. I hope you guys have some comments on Christian as a player or on that game, which I believe was the best college basketball game of all time.

 

[white lightning]

I loved watching Christian play.With him and Hurley
running the team,they will almost unbeatable.I remember
when they played the undefeated UNLV in the ncaa semi
final game.The Running Rebels hadn't lost a game and
were heavy favorites.Duke went toe to toe with them
with Laettner going against Larry Johnson.All Christian
did was have 20 points and 10 rebounds at the half.Duke
went on the win the game and hand UNLV there only loss
of the season and end their year.Laettner led Duke to
the national championship.They easily won the championship game.They won back to back titles and that
should tell you all you need to know about Laettner.He
also was so good that he was the only college player to
play on the Original Dream Team in the Olympics.He
played along side of Bird,MJ,Stockton,Magic,ete.He has
had a very solid career in the nba.I only wish that
Hurley didn't get hurt in that car crash because it
ruined his career.

 

[Don Wassall]

I also remember that 1992 game vividly. It would be hard to top as the best college game ever.


Laettner has been somewhat of a disappointment in the NBA but he is still around and contributing. He reminds me of Keith Van Horn in that respect -- a solid career but not what we had hoped for as a top three draft pick. Sports Illustrated did an article on Laettner about ten years ago in which his mother was quoted as saying that Christian wishes he was black. But SI seems to have a vested interest in portraying as many white athletes as possible as black wannabes.

 

[Colonel_Reb]

Seems to me , if that quote is correct, it is an admission of the double standard in sports. One for whites and another for everyone else. Laettner was sort of disappointing in the NBA, but I'm sure his skin tone was a factor. I almost forgot about him being on the original dream team. Quite a statement for a white college guy to be the lone collegiate representative in a team with the greatest basketball players ever assembled. I bet the Caste System groupies didn't like that one very much.

 

[speedster]

The Duke game against UNLV was signifigant for me because the previous year the Rebels smoked Duke in the final and for the Devils to come back like they did the following year really says something.What a difference a year makes.The game against Kentucky was also really good,but I'm a little biased,so I'll go with Gonzaga vs Arizona from 2003.For those of you who don't remember it was a secound round game and went into double OT.The Zags' had a shot to win it with secounds to go in the secound OT,but Blake Stepp missed an eight foot runner,Walton grabbed the rebound with both arms wrapped around the ball and fell to the floor as did the Zag's Richard Fox,lying there in agony.It was probably one of only two games that I can think of where a team of mine lost a big game like that and I felt really good about it.

 

[Colonel_Reb]

A game that reminds me of that one was Valparaiso beating Ole Miss in about 98 or 99. I haven't kept up with basketball since 1992, so I'm not sure of the year but it was a big upset, and I remember many crushed Ole Miss fans. However, i don't think there was ever an all-out performance such as the one by both teams in that 1992 Duke-UK game.