Duke's Jason Williams gets a hug from a teammate after Duke defeated USC
OK, I said it. It's out there. I have made myself the willing target of a nation's hostility, a country full of purported fans of college basketball who entertain themselves by disparaging my team, who cringe at the sight of Duke blue. And it's not just University of North Carolina fans, for whom, at least, anti-Duke sentiment is a hallowed tradition. Instead, it's a whole lot of people who, for reasons that continue to escape me, find everything about Duke basketball to be deeply distasteful. And for a team that's never done anything but play solid, passionate, occasionally spectacular basketball, that seems an unfair return.
Is it the uniforms? Does the team send out disturbing subliminal messages ("Hi, we're the Duke basketball team. Let us delight you with the sound of our nails running down a chalkboard")? The root of this loathing remains a mystery, although I suspect it may have something to do with the team's incorrigibly clean, slightly privileged image — and its annoying tendency to win.
It's simple, the anti-Dukies try to explain. Nobody likes a winner these days. Nobody likes a team that seems to have it too easy. We harp against the New York Yankees as we once railed against the San Francisco 49ers. And for years we've focused our negative energies on Duke.
That logic, as I've tried hopelessly to explain, is patently absurd. While it might have been understandable back in the early '90s, when Duke won two consecutive national championships, it really doesn't hold water these days. Sure, the pairing of senior Shane Battier and sophomore Jason Williams has taken college basketball by storm. But these guys work unbelievably hard — and their intelligence on the court belies any charges of complacency. Listen to or read any interview, and you'll find this Duke squad is unfailingly humble, a quality that's getting rare among today's college players. And before anyone starts in on the whole Christian Laettner thing, let me remind you that while he was utterly annoying, he graduated seven years ago. It's time for everyone to move on.
What really makes me bristle is the assumption that this year's spectacular showing has been easy for Duke — that these kids are just waltzing through the tournament, pausing to remove their silver spoons just long enough to play the games. This year's team has fought its way back from multiple injuries (Carlos Boozer's broken foot, Jason Williams' badly sprained ankle), several crushing defeats (Carolina, Maryland, Stanford) and a mid-season slump at the line. This Blue Devil team has very little depth from the bench and is markedly smaller than most teams they play. Does that sound like a stacked deck to you?
Never mind. At the very least, this season has taught me a valuable lesson: Loving a much-reviled team is a full-time job — and it's exhausting. You wrestle with a strange and unwieldy configuration of emotions, familiar, I'm sure, to Yankees fans. Pride swirls into protectiveness, which can easily evolve into unflattering defensiveness. I can rationalize away a part of the antipathy, reminding myself that fans of less successful teams are understandably jealous of Duke's spectacular record, sterling reputation, legendary coach. It's hard, though, to completely shake the incredulous anger that rises in my throat when someone dares deprecate my team.
I take some comfort, at least, in the fact that anyone who really dislikes Duke doesn't understand the first thing about the program. To harbor deep-seated animosity for someone like the spectacularly fluid and talented Jason Williams, for instance, is the sign of a cold human heart. And I've always suspected that those who grumble in the face of Coach K's passion are lacking in passion themselves.
So go ahead and root against us this weekend — you'll have plenty of company. I, on the other hand, will have my Maalox, my box of tissues and a carefully calibrated emotional state, teetering between laughter and tears. And, perhaps most importantly, no matter what happens against Maryland and beyond, I'll have the happy knowledge that I root for a team that never, ever disappoints me.