Winner of countless titles and honours with the Duke Blue Devils, the controversial and much maligned figure pulled the trigger one night in March 1992 for a shot – The Shot – that could be heard all over the world.
Alfred Hitchcock once said: “The more successful the villain, the more successful the picture.”In his scripts and on the silver screen, the master of suspense always paid particular attention to the evil characters that drove his narratives. Psycho was compelling because of Norman Bates, while James Mason in North by Northwest and Joseph Cotten in Shadow of a Doubt are the archetypal Hitchcockian villains, both oozing charm – villains who we, the viewer, delight in hating.team or player tends to come hand in hand with hate of others. Christian Laettner is a case in point. For all the records he set while taking Duke from underdog to top dog, he remains the most hated player in college basketball history. The continued frenzy around Laettner is so captivating that, in 2015, ESPN dedicated an entire documentary to him and his paradoxical legacy.Laettner was, admittedly, the perfect villain, wrapped up as he was in unbearable charm. Too privileged. Too good looking. Too strong. Too tall. Too cocky. Too condescending. Too white. Too nasty. Too unapologetic. The list of ‘too’s’ goes on as long as his imposing 6’11” (211cm) frame. Interviewed in the documentary, the American journalist Gene Wojciechowski sums Laettner up in one short sentence: “He’s one of the top 10 players to ever play college basketball, and the No.1 a**hole of all time.
Record-breaker and ultimate competitor
It’s rare for the villains you read about in books or watch on TV to triumph in the end, however discerning and attractive they may be. But Christian Laettner, on the other hand, always had the last word. With each of his successes the public’s aversion for the man both on and off the court increased – to the point that it went stratospheric with the masterpiece he delivered on March 28, 1992.
On that unforgettable evening, Laettner produced one of the greatest individual performances ever seen on a basketball court, in one of the biggest matches ever played, in one of the most captivating conclusions to any final ever seen. Laettner was never so great – or so hated – as he was that night.
Sure, it helped that Laettner played for Duke, the most despised university in the United States. And their star player became a focal point of that animosity. In the colours of the Blue Devils, Laettner became the only player in NCAA history to make four Final Four appearances in a row, winning two national championships in succession – in 1991 and 1992. During his four years at college in Durham, North Carolina, he broke all NCAA records – including most points scored, most games played, most games won, most free throws made and most free throw attempts.
Given few college stars today complete their studies before being snapped up in the NBA draft, Laettner’s records may never be beaten.
But why was this record-breaker such a lightning rod, when Grant Hill, the other big star at the time at Duke, never had such an effect on people? Maybe, it was just because he was Christian Laettner – a role he took on with relish. A role that invariably included trash-talking and dirty play such as jersey grabbing, throwing elbows and, at times, even drawing blood from knocking opponents down…
“I would rather win a lot of basketball games and be very intense than be everyone’s best friend. I couldn’t stop people hating me, so I used it to my advantage,” he says. “I would tell myself, ‘I’m going to make you hate me even more’. But I wasn’t going to waste my time wondering why they hated me or what I could do to make them love me.”Even his team-mates hated him
Outside Duke, there were few people who could stand him. The general public certainly couldn’t. Neither could journalists, coaches and, of course, his opponents. One day, tired of being subjected to a barrage of discreet but painful elbows from Laettner, UConn’s Rod Sellers cracked. While Laettner was on the ground fighting for the ball, the Connecticut centre piled in and smacked his opponent’s head into the floor – not so discreetly, but certainly painfully. “I just wanted to kill him. In fact, I still do,” Sellars said.
