There’s nothing like some friendly competition between teammates. It’s only natural for teammates to joke around with one another and egg each other on from time to time. But when that friendly competition becomes illogical, uneducated, or toxic, it’s gone too far.
The Carolina-Duke rivalry is in a league of its own. A rivalry as historic and heated as the Tobacco Road Rivalry — involving schools only separated by 10 miles — is second to none. And naturally, with a bitter rivalry comes some bitter disputes off the court — sometimes even between teammates.
Yesterday, NCAA March Madness and the Orlando Magic made an Instagram post, captioned “memory lane,” featuring throwback pictures of NBA players during their college days. Among the group of players rocking their college threads were UNC’s Cole Anthony and Duke’s Paolo Banchero and Wendell Carter Jr.
The now Orlando Magic teammates got into a little drama involving the post. Banchero wasted no time taking to social media and calling out Anthony, commenting, “Cole didn’t make the ncaa tournament [by the way].” Carter Jr. seconded the comment, saying, “facts,” with a laughing emoji.
Paolo and Wendell Carter clowning Cole Anthony for being in a March Madness post💀💀 pic.twitter.com/e9rJxSxhuB
— Zion O. (@DukeNBA) March 19, 2025
Now of course, this is all just fun and games between former rivals and current teammates, but there’s just one problem with their shot at Anthony: it makes absolutely no sense at all. If Banchero and Carter Jr. had paid any attention to the history of their sport, they’d remember that the 2019-2020 season — Anthony’s sole season of college basketball — did not even have a March Madness tournament, due to the COVID-19 shutdown.
Anthony responded to Banchero, commenting, “actually no one made the tournament this year.” Now technically, neither party is wrong. Anthony never played in March Madness, but there was no chance of him playing in March Madness either. Now even before the COVID-19 shutdown, UNC was not going to make the tournament. However, there’s a very strong argument that the main reason UNC struggled that season was due to Anthony battling injuries and missing games. The freshman phenom was their best player afterall, averaging 18.5 points, 5.7 rebounds and 4 assists per game. Clearly, Anthony was not the problem on that team.
Potentially, the most ironic part about Banchero and Carter Jr. making jokes at Anthony is looking back at how each of their careers at Duke ended. Did Carter win a ring or even make a Final Four? No, he didn’t. And who did Banchero lose to in the 2022 Final Four again? Oh yeah, the North Carolina Tar Heels, by way of an iconic Caleb Love three, in the first and only March Madness matchup between UNC and Duke. UNC also handed Coach K his final home loss and his final collegiate loss ever during Banchero’s season. In fact, UNC beat Duke 2-3 times during Carter Jr. and Banchero’s respective seasons.
Maybe the Blue Devils should learn to respect the rivalry, especially considering UNC has the upper hand in National Championships, Final Fours, head-to-head wins, and NBA Hall of Famers.