The Laettner era was amazing for Duke fans in many ways. Obviously, Christian Laettner’s competitive flame burned incredibly bright. He developed a mystique like no one else in college basketball history: other fan bases truly hated him, but they also feared him, because Laettner was absolutely ruthless.
He gutted everyone: UNC, Connecticut, Kentucky. They all hated him, but they knew that he was also going to steal their competitive souls. Ask Kentucky. The Shot was in 1992, and despite winning three
national championships since, they’ve never gotten over it.
Partly because they couldn’t rattle him on the court, a rumor sprang up that Laettner was gay.
He talks about that here, how it started, how he reacted to it (he didn’t much care and in fact encouraged it by holding hands with Brian Davis at one point).
The rumor spread across the country, and when the Blue Devils visited Shaquille O’Neal and LSU, fans tried to taunt him with various crude expressions.
None of it worked. Duke won, 77-67, even without Bobby Hurley.
The whole thing was ridiculous, but what it really underscored was how much Laettner scared people, and just as importantly, how they reacted when they couldn’t do a thing to affect him.
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