Showing posts with label Christian Laettner. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Christian Laettner. Show all posts

Friday, September 9, 2011

Sorry Coach K, I don't buy it

The final 2.1 seconds of the 1992 NCAA East Regional Final between Duke and Kentucky is the greatest 2.1 seconds in the history of college basketball.

Game. Set. Match. Take It to the Bank. Bar-none. Fuggedaboutit.

Whatever or however you want to say it, you know it's the truth.

Duke will be celebrating the 20 year anniversary of the 1992 National Championship team this season, and will also be celebrating the induction of Bobby Hurley into the Duke Athletic Hall of Fame. During the promotion of Hurley's induction, Coach-K noted that he believes the point guard's shot against UNLV in 1991 was a bigger shot than the one Laettner made a year later.

Sorry, but I'm just not buying it.

I mean, just watch the video.



It wasn't just the pass. Which, by the way, may be the most beautiful one-handed full-court pass in the history of college basketball.

It wasn't just the drop-step to fade-away jumper. Which, by the way, may be arguably the most beautiful drop-step to fade-away jumper in the history of college basketball.

And it wasn't just the post-shot pandemonium. Which by the way, may be arguable the most pure moment of disbelief and utter joy in college basketball history. Seriously, show me 1.3 seconds of Thomas Hill crying in disbelief and I won't not get choked up. The gleeful high-stepping of Laettner after the shot sank? You can't script it, or re-script it (Well, you can try to re-script it, but it's not as good as the original. Well unless you are Chris Farley).

But what makes it great is the whole moment. Four beautiful sequences placed one after the other, to make arguably the most iconic March Madness moment in March Madness history.

Maybe Coach-K doesn't think it's the biggest shot in Duke history because he was worrying about the win instead of embracing the sheer madness of the moment spill out on live television.

At least I'm not the only person who thinks Coach-K is wrong. Usually, I agree with what Coach-K says and does. But I couldn't disagree more with the multi-time National Championship-winning coach.

Maybe I'm biased because I was a 90's child. Sure I'm an 80's baby, but my passion for college basketball was born in the early-to-mid 90s. I didn't have the luxury of seeing the Lorenzo Charles put-back and Jim Valvano's subsequent dash to find a hug. For me, and probably countless other kids during the early 90's, the Laettner shot was the one I recreated countless times in my driveway.

The crazy thing about that shot is that we've seen shots like this since then. Ali Farohkmanesh's shot against Kansas was more unpredictable. Kemba Walker's buzzer-beater against Pitt was a bigger dagger. We've definitely seen buzzer-beaters more crazy than "Laettner in '92".

So maybe coach-K is right. Maybe it's not the best shot in Duke history.

But it's certainly the best moment in Duke history.


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Friday, March 6, 2009

The New Vitamin Water Commercial

Rumors have been circling for a few weeks that Vitamin Water signed Rick Pitino and Christian Laettner to do a commercial reliving "the shot".

Well, they were true:



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