I still LOVE Laettner!!

I recently watched ESPN’s 30 for 30 and was saddened so many people held such a strong HATE for one of my all-time favorite basketball players. So, let me tell you why I still (and always will) LOVE Laettner.

Sports are a funny thing. They have the power to bring complete strangers together creating an undying bond where no connection was before. People become friends or enemies based simply on the team colors they wear, in my case that would be a darker shade of blue. There are moments in sports that captivate history. People are quick to indicate where they were or what they were doing when such a moment occurred.

I have several Duke moments that are priceless to me. The first moment was when I first decided to become a Duke fan. As a Georgia peach, the only ties I had to North Carolina was my Aunt and Uncle lived in Greensboro (ironically their son is a huge Tar Heel fan). However, during my sixth grade year, my daddy and I started watching a little college basketball together. Basketball was kinda our thing. When you are a girl measuring over 5’ 8” in sixth grade, you are expected to play basketball, and that was an expectation I celebrated.

Coach K, Bobby Hurley, Christian Laettner and the other Blue Devils attracted the attention of Daddy and me during the 1990 NCAA tournaments. Yeah, the ole Runnin’ Rebels kicked Duke’s ass that year, but at the end of the game, I made a declaration. Resting on the top edge of the couch, I looked down at my daddy situated beneath me on the sofa cushions and proclaimed that Duke WOULD win the next National Championship; and so began my (well, our) devoted loyalty to Duke University Basketball.

The following year Daddy and I began watching Duke as faithful, hard-core fans. So faithful in fact that, I began collecting any newspaper or magazine articles I could find (having an Aunt and Uncle in North Carolina, who clipped and sent articles, was handy) and began pasting these cherished articles and pictures in a scrapbook. Because that’s what middle school girls do. They make scrapbooks. Yeah, so most girls put pictures of pop singers or movie actors, but not this girl. The pictures adorning the pages of my scrapbook were of basketball players, DUKE basketball players. I will be completely honest. There may have been more pictures of Christian Laettner, but who is counting. I loved…LOVE…them all. It was a great year. A year that brought the Blue Devils back around to another final four. The rematch occurred and my prophetic statement was fulfilled. WooHoo! A championship!!!

Then the real fun began, and the immense love I had for Duke grew exponentially. During my eighth grade year, I PLAYED basketball, and I WATCHED basketball. The only reason I missed a Duke game was because it wasn’t aired. There were a few times I had a basketball game of my own, with no DVR and not a master the VCR timer, I had to read about the game instead of watch it firsthand.

I LOVED Christian Laettner. He was definitely pretty to look at, but he was SO much more. That boy could play some basketball. I didn’t just LOVE Laettner I was totally obessed, school-girl crush, in LOVE with him. I am certain had Christian Laettner asked me to marry him then I would have been a bride at the ripe age of 12. Lol! I scribed, on more than one piece of notebook paper, the words…Lana Laettner. It really does have a nice ring to it. Alliteration and all ;o)

I loved Laettner, but I loved the entire team. I loved Coach K. I loved watching a team execute the fundamentals of basketball and play TEAM ball (which is rarity). Those boys were exciting to watch. I loved the excitement their playing brought to my daddy. I loved how my daddy and I could discuss basketball.

You see my daddy was my life, and the majority of my life my daddy had been sick. I actually can’t remember a time that he wasn’t sick. He had lupus which resulted in the failure of his kidneys. So, for me, Duke Basketball was more than a fanatic love. It was a love between a daddy and his daughter, a love which has allowed a family bond to transcend the grave. I suppose there is something fitting that my daddy actually died during the month of March. Now in the month of March, I get to reminisce not specifically about my father’s death, but I get to remember all of our Duke and Laettner “moments”. Two of my most favorite moments came during the quest of defending and repeating a national championship.

The game. The pass. The shot. It was one of those historical sports moments everyone remembers. The night Christian Laettner was perfection. Perfection, I say!! He did NOT miss a shot, the ENTIRE game. Not a 3-pointer. Not a lay-up. Not a free-throw. He had the PERFECT game. I watched the entire game pretty much on the edge of my seat, AND because I am a die-hard and faithful fan, I hadn’t lost hope even when there were only 2.1 seconds and an entire court length between the goal and the ball. However, my daddy was slightly less hopeful than I. He got up and walking away said,

“Well, baby. It looks like it just isn’t gonna happen tonight. They played a helluva game though.”

He continued up the hall only to hear my scream echo through the house (and possibly through town.) Of all the people who watched the game that night, my daddy was probably the only one who didn’t SEE the shot LIVE. Thankfully, I had recorded the game. So, after I ran through the house, out the front door to catch my breath and then back through the house out the back door over to my grandparents’ house to tell them the good news and back home, I was able to rewind the tape and show daddy the shot. Our phone began to ring, and for the remainder of the evening, I graciously accepted words of congratulations. Ha! That’s right…people were calling to congratulate ME on Duke’s win! Can you say fangirl?

As the journey through March continued, my daddy’s health was failing, and he was admitted into the hospital which wasn’t unusual occurrence. Well, Duke was playing Indiana in the first round of the finals. It was the Saturday night, and I was not going to allow a hospital to come between daddy-daughter basketball time. So, a Dodge County Hospital room was transformed into a sports bar (minus the cocktails) for a few hours. And what a few hours they were! Have you ever experienced a moment in life that felt like you were in a movie? As I watched Indiana cut Duke’s lead, I felt like I was watching “Hooisers,” the movie. Just as Gene Hackman’s “Hoosiers” inched back to win a championship, Bobby Knight’s were making their move from the 3-point line as well. Thankfully, Duke, like always, fired back to secure their place among the top two college teams in the nation.

Unfortunately, the national championship game is always on a Monday and my daddy was still in the hospital. So, we watched the game in separate spaces, but our hearts were filled with the same love for the Duke Blue Devils. I didn’t even have to wait for the game to be over to call him because Duke crushed the FAB 5 of Michigan.

So, yeah I still LOVE Laettner. Christian Laettner was significant in securing my loyalty as a Duke fan. And when I am loyal, I am 100 % loyal, a trait I learned from my daddy. So, Christian Laettner, thank you! Thank you for being the amazing basketball player you are and giving me the opportunity to watch the beauty of basketball with the first man I ever loved and the one who will always hold a chunk of my heart.

Being able to watch ESPN’s 30 for 30 allowed memories to flood over my mind and body bringing me back to a happy time in my life. As I watched, I looked down to find my body covered in chill bumps. I could genuinely feel the presence of my past visiting my present.

So to all reading, I challenge you to create meaning with the time you have on this earth. Be present in the lives of those you cherish. Allow small things like watching a ballgame become a connection between you and your loves, a connection that even death can’t take away. Time…there is a finite amount. Each of us has limited time on this earth. So, let’s not leave here searching for more, let’s be the more while we are here. When we are the more now, those we love will always have us with them.

Though Christian Laettner was a major player in my love affair, all things DUKE and all things associated with Duke were and will always be cherished in my heart because they link me to my daddy. To Coach K, Dicky V, Jimmy V, Bobby Hurley, Grant and Thomas Hill, Brian Davis… the list could really go on FOREVER, thank you. Your faithfulness to the game of basketball gave my daddy and me a togetherness I continue to treasure. Please know your influence lingers in the lives of your fans, particularly this one. I am now teaching my children to LOVE Duke. Tyus Jones, there is a little boy in McRae, GA who thinks you are AWESOME, ba-by!

Let’s Go, DUKE!!