Interesting list put together by Thomas Neuman. Of course I always find hate to be such a strong word. I prefer to look at it as “Strongly Disliked to the Point of Revulsion.” No qualms with the first four on the list:
1. Christian Laettner
2. J.J. Reddick
3. Steve Wojciechowski
4. Chris Collins
After that my list would differ.
5. Bobby Hurley
6. Greg Paulus
7. Danny Ferry
8. Quin Snyder
9. Shane Battier
10. Thomas Hill
Including Mike Krzyzewski is a waste of space. He has a list all to himself called “10 Ten Reasons Why We Strongly Dislike Mike Krzyzewski to the Point of Revulsion.” My disdain for Duke players seems to predicated on the general whiny behavior of their guards which is why I am moving Hurley and Paulus so far up the list. Danny Ferry was just plain annoying during the late 1980’s as was Quin Snyder who was also a laughingstock at Missouri. Shane Battier had something about him(besides the flopping) that just grated the nerves. And Thomas Hill? The crying after Laettner hit the shot against UK in 1992 was enough of a reason to put him on the list. I disagree with including Gerald Henderson, Brian Davis, and Shavlik Randolph because they did not really do enough to annoy UNC in general. Henderson needs more time at Duke to really draw some serious dislike. I need more in the way of annoying chest bumping or some kind of signature habit to really get my ire up at him. Davis was inconsequential and I am not sure even Duke acknowledges at this point that Randolph was ever on the team there.
Tar Heel Fan 
What-no Mike Dunleavy?!?
I actually liked Shavlik Randolph. He was the human foul. Always got us out of trouble.
I guess I’m showing my age here: interesting that all of these “most hated” are K’s products. Going back a few years, I actually liked quite a few of Duke’s players—Gminski, Banks, Taylor, and especially Kenny Dennard &Tate Armstrong. Liked Coach Foster too–I respect K’s accomplishments as a coach, and off the court I’m sure he’s a good guy, but he’s quite the Turd when he takes his seat on the bench…kinda like GWB, except for the accomplishments!
The Duke teams of the 1970s seem to draw less ire. The teams from the 60s were engulfed with a bad blood feud with UNC and since K took over it has been outright dislike from about 1984 on.
Wojo will always be number 1 on my list…
And why is that people feel the need to air their political laundry on sports blogs? SO annoying!
for the same reason I occasionally reference sports on political blogs–do you eat hamburger at every meal?
Just curious–were Alarie & Bilas K’s recruits? Liked both of them too.
food for thought:
—imagine how Sunday’s incident might have turned out were Larry Brown or George Karl at the helm.
I’d make room somewhere for:
Johnny “I won’t shake your hand” Dawkins, more for his behavior as a coach than a player, but he was annoying on the court, too.
Randy Denton, early 70’s hatchet man.
Freddy Lind, a walk-on/scrub who came off the bench to spark a comeback and beat Carolina (1969? 1970–I’ve hated these guys for a long time). Not ony that, he’s a lawyer now.
My kids are learning the same sort of hatred. One of the first things my daughter (now 15) said was “Sit down, Weaselface!” The other night, she noted that Paulus looks like a possum and Scheyer looks like he has an eating disorder, so now they are “Possum” and “Mary Kate” at my house. I have hopes for the younger generation.
To be nice, I am submitting my list of favorite Duke players in no particular order:
1) Mike Gminski–Class
2) Jay Bilas-Class
3) Grant Hill–Class
4) Clay Buckley
5)Shavlik Randolph, for giving K the finger and leaving early and doing well in the NBA.
6)Cherokee Parks–K hated him and considered him soft, so he must not have been such a bad guy
Somebody sent me a play by play of the Duke-Wake game this year that Duke won by 22 and they had the starters in and were shooting 3 pointers–Duke took a time-out with less than 2 minutes in the game, up by 20, left all its starters in and then had a McRoberts dunk and a Paulus 3-pointer in the last seconds:
3:28 35-53 Josh McRoberts made Free Throw.
3:16 Ishmael Smith missed Two Point Layup. 35-53
3:16 35-53 Josh McRoberts Defensive Rebound.
2:59 35-55 Josh McRoberts made Two Point Dunk Shot.
2:53 Wake Forest Full Timeout. 35-55
2:44 Ishmael Smith made Two Point Layup. 37-55
2:10 37-57 David McClure made Two Point Jumper.
1:55 37-57 Foul on David McClure
1:55 37-57 Duke Full Timeout.
1:55 Ishmael Smith made Free Throw. 38-57
1:55 Ishmael Smith missed Free Throw. 38-57
1:55 38-57 Duke Defensive Rebound.
1:24 L.D. Williams missed Three Point Jumper. 38-57
1:24 38-57 Gerald Henderson Defensive Rebound.
0:49 38-59 Josh McRoberts made Two Point Dunk Shot.
0:34 Ishmael Smith missed Three Point Jumper. 38-59
0:34 38-59 Josh McRoberts Defensive Rebound.
0:08 38-62 Greg Paulus made Three Point Jumper.
0:05 Ishmael Smith missed Two Point Layup. 38-62
0:05 Ishmael Smith Offensive Rebound. 38-62
0:04 Ishmael Smith made Two Point Layup. 40-62
I’m a little shocked that McBob didn’t make the list; I guess for most people, you have to have at least a little talent in order to be reviled. However, I’ve been saying since last year that he is without any shadow a doubt my least favorite dook player of all time. In fact I would have to do some really deep thinking to decide if he or Terrell Owens is my least favorite athlete of all time.. well again, that is if you can consider McBob an athlete.
Shavlik gave Kyrzechrkzshitski the bird?? Hahahahaha! First I’ve heard about that. Do tell…
Back to McBob…
THF,
Didn’t know if you saw my last post under The Foul: Frame by Frame? As I admittedly had heard about all I could take for one day from a number of dookies, I was a little fired up when I wrote that last rebuttal. Again, as I stated there, pls feel free to delete those last couple of entries if you think are a little too contentious for your blog.
I don’t know if he gave K the finger litereally, but it was apparently an ugly scene when he left. I don’t think the family was happy with the way K used him. He was supposed to be another Gminski or Laettner. What I am not sure about is whether K wanted him back or told him to take a hike. I thought maybe K wanted the scholarship but Duke could have used Randolph last year when they got worn down at the end of the season.
I don’t really remember Gminski’s play that well. Either I was too young or dook hadn’t become enough of a threat at that point for me to pay much attention to their players. As far as he being another Laettner, even had he stayed 4 years Shavlik would never have been the @$$hole, i mean player, that Laettner was. In retrospect, he almost seems more like McBob as far as basketball development anyway (by no means was his personality or attitude remotely similar to McBob’s). To my recollection Shav had a very promising first year only hit a sort of glass ceiling with his talent early in his sophomore season. But again that could just be due to the dook program. After the incident on Sunday, concerning K’s post game comments, someone wrote something to the affect that “the only thing Coach K is better at than spinning public opinion and manipulating the media is taking McDonald’s All Americans and other top notch high school talent and turning them into mediocre NBA players.” Hahahahaha!
Duke players kept getting mono. I was like, what’s going on in Basketball Housing.
The Wojo-K was just so vile and disgusting. It’s like one of those terrible movie scenes you wish you hadn’t seen because you can’t get it out of your mind.
First of all, Carolina choked that game, so none of us was in such a great mood to begin with, but I remember thinking that we lost that game more than Duke won it.
But then with WoJo and K crying and finding each other across the area and then hugging and kissing. I kept waiting for K to pull Wojo’s shorts down and bend him over.
Can you imagine Dean Smith and say, Dante hugging and kissing and crying together?
Me either. Roy cries a lot but at least I haven’t seen him cry and hug in public yet. Somethings I don’t need to see.
Wow. I am gone from this blog site for a week and a wholesome can of Anti-Duke fervor erupts! Nice work, all of you. I remember this list when EPSN first introduced it this past spring. Poor ESPN, Duke was having a down year (much like the Yankees this year) and they needed to keep the Dookies in people’s minds, so they put together that list.
Personally, I have enjoyed the rise in Tar Heel popularity since Coach Roy took over, as opposed to the Dark Ages (1999-2004-ish) when Dook definately ruled the hen house. I am a teacher at a prominent Catholic high school, in which our students (all male) have more reason than not to identify with the self-righteous privelidged Duke players. However, the tide has changed, with UNC getting the credibility points galore and Duke being seen as a program that is simply one of the best (not THE premiere program that its fans still falsely propogate). So, back to the point….this list was well-received by many of our students and provided for interesting study-hall debates.
Bobby Hurely never bothered me. He was simply a true point-guard and K used him well. In fact, I will always credit K for the job he did in the late-80s, early 90s period when he went for the gold (and Dean’s thrown) and won. However, he definately used the services of some royal asses (if not over-spoiled preppies) who shared his view of winning at all costs. So Ferry, Snyder, and Laettner deserve to be there. Moving to the mid-90s, Chris Collins makes the all-Hate team, for his uneccesary arrogance (what has he done, really?) and pretend-to-be tough (it’s easy to pretend when well-paid daddy’s got your back). Late 90s additions would have to be Trajon Langdon (wasn’t it Dookie V who coined the nickname “Alaskan Assassin”?), Wojo (it’s all been said, but you can never dis this little turd enough), and Rashan McLeod (what did he ever do you ask? He knee’d Vince Carter in the groin for starters!). This decade has probably brought on more of an influx of Duke Dorks simply because this has been the program’s era of silly propoganda; specifically, the TV commercials (nice K), the whiny arrogance (now that they’re NOT getting all the calls), and the false modesty when they congratulate victorious opponents. Paulus, McRoberts, Reddick, Jay Williams (how was he overlooked on previous lists?), Dahntay Jones (wow, he could do three pushups after a dunk), and Chris Duhon. Here are my top 10:
1. Christian Laettner (’nuff said, but he did win…or was it whine?)
2. J.J. Redick (oh yeah….and no championship)
3. Wojo (Frodo could have laid a royal beat-down on this dork)
4. Chris Collins (and Samwise would do the same to this worthless whiner)
5. Danny Ferry (nice job giving Lebron some solid scorers to work with…wink)
6. Jay Williams (I was in Lexington when he choked and missed the game-tying free-throw against Indiana in the 2002 NCAA tournament)
7. Chris Duhon (stop trying to make tough-guy faces, you’re a diva)
8. Dahntay Jones (the pushups….I don’t think he ever did more than four at a time)
9. Grant Hill (for putting the gloss on the program that made them so beloved, and gave the Dookie V’s all the ammunition to protect and to serve the program during the lean mid-90s period)
10. Dookie V!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Actually, he SHOULD have been rated higher.
You guys are pretty pathetic. I thought college was about degree’s and graduating players. I’m no Duke fan but am a huge college basketball fan b/c of the heart these kids show. I think Duke does as good as job as any in showing that. i see this team up by 30 and their guys still diving in the stands for loose balls. I see teammates that really like each other and share the ball. I’ve never seen or heard a guy from Duke that couldn’t complete a sentence, but have you ever seen a Ed Cota or Rasheed Wallace interview? WOW!
Ever seen the level of charitable work guys like Rasheed Wallace, Jerry Stackhouse, Antawn Jamison and other UNC players have done once they got their money in the NBA? Just because they are not the most articulate people in the world does not mean anything to me. And as far as I know there are a scant few UNC players to never finish their degrees. Someone feel free to correct me but I think Wallace and McInnis were the only two.
I always get a kick out of someone who says I’m no ____ fan but… LOL First of all as everyone knows that’s a lie and you are a liar. Enough said. Go Tarheels and GO TO HELL DUKE! Everyone there sucks.