I’m an avid Duke fan (since the ’86 Johnny Dawkins-led team lost to Louisville in the NCAA finals) and I often wonder why there is such an anti-Duke sentiment these days. Then I think about how I root against the Yankees, Lakers, Wolverines, and to a lesser extent the Patriots, and I realize why. Nobody likes a winner. As much of a frontrunning crowd we can be locally, we’re definitely like the underdogs nationally. It probably stems from the whole Revolutionary War thing…but I digress.
For me, Duke epitomizes all that is right about college basketball. Coach K gets his kids to play hard on both ends of the court each and every night, and that’s not common in today’s game.
Enter J.J. Redick, who is by far the sport’s most reviled player. On one hand, I can see why a lot of people dislike the guy. During his first two seasons, he was bratty as hell, talking sh*t and/or bobbing his head after every made bucket. But the last two seasons, I’ve seen him grown from a cocky kid into a confident man. Oh, and he’s arguably the best shooter that the game has ever seen.
ESPN’s Pat Forde wrote a nice article about the other side of J.J. Redick.
The kid had been an immediate success in Durham, maybe too immediate for his long-term good. He averaged 15 points per game as a freshman and 15.9 as a sophomore, helping the Blue Devils to the Final Four. But after a come-from-ahead loss to eventual champion Connecticut in the national semifinals — in which Redick missed a crucial late shot — it was time for a critical re-evaluation of the prodigy’s progress.
Redick was crushed by the UConn loss and stumbled through a depressed period. He didn’t get a whole lot of sympathy from the Duke coaches, who gave him this tough-love appraisal of his game: You’re overweight, underdisciplined and uncommitted to fulfilling your potential.
“He had to make a decision,” Duke assistant Chris Collins said. “We told him, ‘You can be a good player for four years and be on good teams. Or do you want to be great?’ It would require drastic changes in his lifestyle and a commitment he’d never given. That was a moment of truth for him as a basketball player.”
So he listened to the criticisms from the coaches, accepted them and got down to the task of reinventing himself.
“We regimented his whole summer,” Collins said. “Every hour of every day was accounted for, and he followed it. Now it’s become who he is.”
Who is he now? A disciplined, superbly conditioned athlete who has become the leading scorer in Duke history and soon will be the leading scorer in Atlantic Coast Conference history.
Said J.J.: “Early on in my career, I definitely had an annoying persona, a brash persona on the court. I’d talk trash or head-bob after making a shot. A lot of that stemmed from insecurities. I wasn’t sure how good I could be or who I was.
“I still might grin — I won’t use a cussword, but you know what grin I’m talking about — on the court. But that’s just because I’m having fun. I try to be humble. I realize that any talent I have is a result of God’s blessing. I don’t feel the need to [talk trash] as much anymore.”
In this weekend’s game against Temple, Redick did break the ACC scoring record. It’s quite an accomplishment, considering that the record lasted for 51 years.
And while I understand all the hate, I sure don’t agree with it.
