don bosco
03-09-2007, 10:04 AM
No wonder Duke is a team fans love to hate
Will Blythe brings some real North Carolina perspective to bear:
Quote:Ian Williams assumed that it would pass with time, that he would see it as childish or merely a college phase. Not so much.
Although he's 38, lives a world away from the University of North Carolina in Venice, Calif., and has a grown-up job as a writer for television and movies, he still can't let it go.
He fervently, absolutely, can't stand Duke and Duke basketball.
"I thought I'd be the one saying, 'Hating Duke is so juvenile,' " said Williams, a former columnist for the UNC school paper who first wrote about his feelings for that other university in 1990, a treatise that has taken on Gospel-like stature for Tar Heel fans ever since. "But it's only gotten worse. It did really just ferment."
Will Blythe brings some real North Carolina perspective to bear:
Quote:Blythe gained a broader perspective of Duke and its program while researching his book (He actually admits, god forbid, that he likes J.J. Redick, not that he wants to see the Blue Devils win). He said ill feelings for Duke begin for most folks with that fact it's a small, private school seen as a haven for elitist interlopers from the northeast. UNC is public, the everyman school.
"Duke hatred is a great outlet for class hatred that rarely finds an avenue of expression in this country," Blythe said. "Within the state of North Carolina, it's intensified. It is a way of declaring yourself, a way of identifying what kind of person you are. ... It goes pretty deep and it's strange that it's expressed in a sports rivalry."
Quote:And for many, the face of Duke is Krzyzewski.
The haters insist that he's disingenuous and holier than thou. They say he browbeats referees, which allows his team to benefit from phantom calls or no-calls or perhaps additional time put on the clock as was the case against Clemson this year. (Heck, there's a Web site devoted to Duke and K bashing; truthaboutduke.com.) All the while, he's praised on TV for his resume.
"It's hard for a UNC fan to talk about Krzyzewski's attitude and hypocrisy without devolving into epithets," Williams said. "But like any good hatred, to maintain it, you need a little food. It seems that every couple of years, Duke has a guy who fits the mold of someone who was genetically engineered for hatred."
Guys who carried themselves a bit too much like their coach.
Guys like Danny Ferry. Christian Laettner. Bobby Hurley. J.J. Redick.