UNC Basketball: The 10 Duke players UNC fans hated most
Christian Laettner
Christian Laettner remains the most hated figure in Duke basketball history by a slim margin over Grayson Allen, despite hanging up his Blue Devils jersey over 27 years ago. Allen need not despair, though, as he’s making up ground at a torrent pace.
But unlike Allen, Laettner was mostly hated for being a great college basketball player, and for the tremendous amount of success that he saw during his four years with the Blue Devils. Don’t get me wrong, Laettner had his fair share of questionable moments and borderline dirty plays, but he looks like an angel compared to Allen. Laettner never lacked confidence on the court which was often seen as cockiness that opposing fans also grew tired of.
Laettner’s list of accomplishments are enough to make any UNC basketball fan angry — two national titles, consensus National Player of the Year and ACC Player of the Year are just a few — but it might be Kentucky Wildcats fans who hate him more than anyone else. His famous buzzer beater against the Wildcats in the 1992 Elite 8 solidified that hate for generations to come.
He drew the ire of other fan bases when his Blue Devils knocked off some of America’s most beloved college basketball teams, like the UNLV Running Rebels in 1991, and Michigan’s Fab Five in 1992. Love him or hate him, Laettner is one of the most accomplished players in college basketball history.
Though his NBA career began to flame out prior to age 30, the numbers that he put up at Duke were gaudy, to say the least. In four seasons, he started 128 of 148 games for the Blue Devils. He averaged 16.6 points, 7.8 rebounds, 1.8 assists, 1.6 steals and a block in 27 minutes per game.
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He shot better than 57 percent from the floor for his career, and nearly 81 percent from the free throw line. Maybe even more impressive for the 6-foot-11, 235-pound center is that he converted 48.5 percent of his three-point attempts in college, and hit a sweltering 55.7 percent from beyond the arc as a senior.