Anti-Duke Manifesto

The general public’s unawareness of the above is perpetuated by the sports media’s irrational love for Duke basketball. For reasons unimaginable, sportscasters, commentators, and writers constantly turn blind eyes to the endless reasons to despise the place, all while feeding the myth that Coach K and his Cameron Crazies are embodiments of class. ‘Whats not to like? Theres nothing to criticize,’ is an illustrative quote from Dick Vitale.

The media has become so jaded in its bias that it has taken to viewing Duke players as the victims of unfair and undeserved hostility. Dick Vitale, during Dukes senior night loss to UNC, proclaimed how JJ Redick is the most ‘abused’ player he has ever seen in 27 years of covering college basketball. He went on to lament the verbal abuse and profanity, which, he added, ’should be a no-no in college arenas.’ Again, this from the man who idolizes the Cameron Crazies.

The best example was aired by ESPN immediately after Duke’s second loss to Maryland last season. The network devoted a lengthy segment to the subject of how low opposing fans go to get inside poor JJ Redick’s head. The segment started by showing JJ shooting alone in a quite and dark gym that he considers his sacred home, the absurd implication being that Duke offers a calm and reverent venue. Next, game clips of rival fans, mostly from Maryland, were shown shouting at Redick. From there, JJ himself, in a sickeningly sanctimonious tone of voice, bemoans the startling comments that he has heard from opposing school’s students and fans. Midway through the piece, Chris Collins, of all people, offers his opinions as to what is and is not acceptable from a sportsmanship standpoint. The segment ends with JJ reading poetry and scripture, which he explains, help him through his tribulations. All of this mind you, from a player whose supporting student body annually raises the bar for the most despicable courtside conduct in the country. The entire segment was preposterous, yet, at no point, did ESPN even hint at the possible irony? Well, JJ, to your inspirational book of poetry, please allow me to contribute the following gems, which hopefully will further assist you in your life’s toils:

People who live in glass houses, should not throw stones.

You reap what you sow.

What goes around comes around.

Whats good for the goose is good for the gander.

As with its misguided adulation of the Duke student body and players, the media goes to absurd extremes to worship Krzyzewski as the ultimate role model. A classic case in point came in the 2001 season. Duke, in a home game against Georgia Tech, ran its lead to 44 with under a minute to play, due largely to three point shooting that continued long after the point of gratuitous humiliation. Finally, as the clock went under thirty seconds, Duke graciously held the ball for its final possession. Mike Patrick, in his annoyingly dogmatic tone of voice, shouted, ‘Doesn’t that just show what a classy guy Mike Krzyzewski is? He doesn’t want to embarrass anybody.’ It was as if the difference between a 44 and 46 point nationally televised drubbing was somehow a magnanimous show of sportsmanship.

Fox Sports Net recently did its best to promote the Krzyzewski media myth. In its Beyond the Glory series, the network airs periodic one hour biographies on various historical sports figures. As its name suggests, the program typically focuses on the good and the bad of the sports figure at issue. The intent is to reveal the whole person, as opposed to just the already known athletic accomplishments. Drug addiction, gambling, and spousal abuse are examples of the commonly exposed dark themes.

Two years ago, Coach K was the subject. Not once did the program even hint at the possibility of the man having anything short of a model citizen profile. Ignoring the dirty laundry discussed in this writing alone, the entire piece suggested that K was a miracle worker who moved to lowly Durham, North Carolina in order to resurrect a struggling basketball program the same program that played in the national championship game two seasons before his arrival. He was never confronted about his poor sportsmanship, his oft-criticized hypocrisy, the underhanded manner in which he lures players to his school by securing jobs for parents, his controversial television ads, or his gutless buck passing. The only criticism was one from K himself. He faulted himself for underestimating how ‘popular’ he would become after winning his first two national titles. He explained how he attempted to meet all of the endless demands for public appearances, which triggered the exhaustion that forced him to quit the 1994-95 season just as the teams season started its way down the toilet. That Ks only admitted fault from that season was underestimating his perceived popularity says it all.

It is bad enough that the sports media fails to research the mans background sufficiently to expose these easily discoverable facts. But, thanks to the New York Times, we now know that ignorance and sloppy journalism is not the root cause of the medias misplaced adoration. In his ‘Follow Me’ article, Times writer Michael Sokolove rambled on about the leadership virtues of Coach K, actually following select chapters from Ks book in the process. On the first page of the article, Sokolove cited the initial version of this writing as an example of the ‘vitriol’ thrown at Coach K. Sokolove presumably read the paper, as he briefly discussed two scattered points and actually ran a word count on it. Nevertheless, he quickly dismissed the decades of factual evidence and undeniable statistics as the stuff of envy. ‘What the manifesto demonstrates, mainly,’ writes Sokolove, ‘is how satisfying it can be to hate success and, even more so, to hate success linked to virtue.’ Sokolove made no attempt to refute any of the points made, other than to state that it ’seems far-fetched’ to note that much of Dukes success is due to its astounding free throw advantages.

I expect Duke fans to ignore the countless examples that I have cited, but not supposedly objective sportswriters. It is as if the national media is absolutely incapable of objectively considering a well-supported, detailed enumeration of what makes the man so loathsome. Instead these blithely ignorant journalists feed on one anothers misperceptions. It all culminates with absurdities such as Mike Ventres description of Coach K as, ‘the closest thing we have to royalty in college basketball.’

The extent to which the media has become blind in its love for the program as a whole is similarly astounding. Remember a few seasons ago when Duke came back from ten points down to Maryland in the final minute of play? A great comeback, no doubt, but Mike Patrick once again lost all grips on reality by emphatically stating how it was the most amazing thing he had ever seen.

Apparently, Mike missed it when Carolina came back from eight points down in seventeen seconds, with no three-point shot available – against Duke, by the way. Mike also forgot about Duke blowing a 40-19 halftime lead against UVA during the 1994-95 season for the biggest ACC choke in five years.

To this day, we are still afflicted with video clips of Christian Laettner’s buzzer beating shot against Kentucky in the 1992 regional finals. Undoubtedly, it will remain firmly etched in the middle of CBS’s road to the final four for perpetuity. And why? A dramatic shot? Sure. But how many more spectacular – and far more significant – tournament shots have there been? How about a freshman named Jordan hitting the game winner in the 1982 National Championship game? N.C. State’s Lorenzo Charles dunking home the championship winner the very next year in one of the great Cinderella stories? Padgetts dramatic title game winner for Kentucky; Keith Smarts for Indiana? Its also easy to forget that UConn, two years before Laettner hit his shot, pulled off a far more improbable win when Tate George received a true length of the court pass and beat Clemson at the buzzer. Laettner’s shot was good, but please, for the love of Pete, spare us further viewing of this well-worn piece of film.

And how many times have you heard the media use this curious phrase when heralding Duke and Coach K: ‘all of those national championships.’ Normally, when a phrase begins with the words, ‘all of those,’ it refers to a large multitude. There is only one college hoops program deserving credit for, ‘all of those national championships,’ and it is UCLA. It is just one example of the bogus elitism that the media has bestowed upon Duke more on that later.

Mike P and Dickie V