I'm starting to hate Duke

In his professional blog Huan does a nice job explaining why this is the one of the worst pieces of sports-writing in 2007. Or ever.

I struggle to find words to describe how upset this makes me. Part of being a Duke fan is recognizing that people hate Duke. If you can't deal with that singular fact then you probably shouldn't be running a website dedicated to cheering on Duke basketball. And you certainly shouldn't write long essays explaining (incorrectly) why people hate Duke.

In case you don't know, here is why people hate Duke:

1. The hating started in the early 90s after the back-to-back championships (think Yankees) and the Laettner stomp. While DBR would have you believe that the stomp wasn't that big of a deal, they miss the whole point. Perception is that Laettner did it on purpose (he probably did); it doesn't matter whether Timberlake was hurt or not. It was a jerk thing to do, and thence started Duke hating.
2. The hate grew in the mid-90s as Coach K started appearing in sanctimonious TV ads and Vitale/ESPN started to broadcast every Duke game. I mean every game. We've been overexposed for a decade. As a fan this doesn't bother me, as it saves me from buying ESPN's college channel. But if something annoys you, and then you see it all the time, well, it probably annoys you even more.
3. The past 10 years have seen Coach K appear in even preachier ads, a resurgence of talent that reinforced the Yankees image, and Battier the flopper. I don't mind K doing the ads... I'd eat glass and live in a barn for a year to get an Amex deal. But the fact that DBR completely ignores his polarizing effect when "analyzing" Duke-hating is just ignorant. Also, I have no beef with Battier... he's a great person, great basketball player, etc. But people didn't like him because they thought he got all the calls. Deal with it.

So DBR needs to understand that the downside of success is that people don't always love a winner. What's especially sad about the essay is that it papers over a very interesting point: why has the hatred toward Duke grown vitriolic? I would feel safe walking down Franklin Street in full Duke gear... there's always been some level of respect between UNC and Duke. But I'd be terrified to even mention that I was a Duke fan in College Park. When VCU knocked Duke out of this year's tournament the entire bar was cheering loudly against Duke (not really for VCU). In Seattle. There were reports of journalist at neutral sites cheering Duke's loss. This is a new, somewhat disturbing trend. One that would be interesting to explore. Unfortunately DBR just whined.

So, in the spirit of Stephen Colbert, I've decided that DBR is dead to me. I can find other sources of recruiting information, and if I really feel like I need to talk to a homer I'll call Jordan, who is still convinced that Duke will go undefeated last year.